The Journal of Michael Merriam

I finished de Lint's The Blue Girl last night. I think this might well be his best work since Trader. It also reinforces my theory that when writing for the YA market, writers tend to focus the story better. It's nice to see Charles at his best again, if even for one book. The plot is tight, the prose clean, and while it is set in Newford, we don't have a cameo every page.

I sent in my panel requests for CONvergence today. Come see mmerriam babble on about these topics.

How to keep your characters balanced: A panel about making sure your fictional character are neither too powerful nor too weak for the tasks before them. And what to do if you suddenly realize your character has too much power.

Is the best genre fiction juvenile these days?: A terrible title for what I think will be a great panel. I've been very vocal about my belief that current SF&F YA is better written and more readable than most SF&F geared toward adults. Or maybe I just never grew up.

An introduction to LARPing: Because I do LARP, and I want to make sure that something other than the Vampire crowd gets represented.

Why your child should play D&D: I have a sneaky feeling we will preaching to the choir on this one, but still, if some parent is concerned, I want to do my part to help make them feel better about one of my favorite games.

Open Reading: I did this last year for the first time, and it was great! I just have to decide which story...

This book needs a talking cat: Exploring cliches in SF&F. What cliches still work, and why? What tired tropes need to be sporked to death?

In other news: I keep meaning to get back to The Novel Without a Name, but I'm distracted by all these bright shiny short stories that keep popping up in my head.

Oooohhhh, there goes one right now...