What were your formative reads? Which books did you love as a child/teen? How did your reading habits and choices change (if at all) once you moved to the US? My father considered himself to be in charge of my education, which meant that I was handed books like 2001 Space Odyssey, Collected Works of
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Monday: the Food Edition
Has the pandemic made you adventurous with food out of necessity? No, I always liked trying new foods. When I was growing up in Russia, the menu was relatively simple. In winter, there is typically a soup, followed by very traditional starch- protein-vegetable plate. In summer, instead of the soup, that same plate is accompanied
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Women’s Life Skills
When I was a pre-teen and later a teenager, it was determined that I was deeply lacking in vital life skills. These skills were specifically female and constituted an essential part of becoming a successful Southern Russian wife and mother. Many decades before, my Don Cossack great-grandmother had to sew several elaborate dresses for herself
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Happy Wednesday
Mammogram is clear. I am so happy right now. In celebration, here is a secret snippet. The difference between images and reality was shocking. Like seeing a recording of a sable tiger taken with care under perfect lighting vs turning around in the middle of a hike and finding one staring at you from the
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Routine, Roles, and Friendship
How important is having a routine in writing? You seem very distraught whenever your routine is interrupted and I don’t know if it’s just because the deadlines or because it throws you off. Do you think you will ever retire from writing (not just publishing) or is it something your brain will always want to
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Facebook and Instagram Author Scammers
Scammers on Facebook and Instagram have targeted authors. They are creating profiles with author names and pictures and then solicit money from fans. This special snowflake even attempted to join the official fan group to troll for victims. How to spot a scammer Most successful authors do not friend fans first. This is a tactic
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I Have the Power!
How much do you get to control when you’re self-publishing? And how much do you stick to in terms of “industry standards” because they are good/established marketing even if you don’t agree with? Book length, fonts, cover type,”purity” of tropes, PG rating etc? Do you always listen to your agent or pub team if they
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Pseudonyms
Do you have a list of book ideas somewhere that are very out of your usual genres or don’t have time for? Have you ever thought about starting over under a pseudonym? Yes, but probably not for the most obvious reason. 🙂 Let’s cover the more traditional uses for a pseudonym. From a publisher’s point
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Coming up for air
About 1M gallons of sewage discharged into San Marcos River Feb. 18. Good news, our communal well is more than a mile away, so we don’t have to boil water again. Those Florida hurricanes are looking pretty good. Hehe. Last night 11:20 pm. I’m very tired. The real estate market in Austin is crazy. People
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Stuff happened. Stuff Was Not Good.
A lot of stuff happened in the last 10 days. None of it was awesome. Most of it I can’t share because it’s private, but I will give you a few small examples. Kid 2’s landlord is suddenly returning to Austin. We were under impression that she would have at least another year in the
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Business Monday
Thank you so much for all of the well-wishers and worrying. We are okay. Kid 1 made it home safe. Kid 2 made an 88 on her latest cellular biology exam, which is some sort of miracle considering everything that went on. Batty and Boots, the semi-feral and the feral cat, made it through, and
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Here We Go Again
This is what it looked like 15 minutes ago, when I talked to Kid 1. It’s worse now. And now it’s snowing sideways because of the lovely Texas wind. Looks like our kid isn’t coming home today.
