Mary Christmas

Article in OregonLive.com headlined "The Conspiracy of lesbian writers". The featured writer? Mary Christmas. C'mon. Santa's already limbering up for his annual moment of glory. It was too good to pass up.

"Is Mary Christmas really Mary McAllister, aka DJ Hotpants, and loving cohabitant to the famed Dr. Dresch? Or is she another of the queer music and club gaggle that adorn the PDX scene throwing us off with her clever pseudonym?"

You tell me. It's a fascinating mystery.

Also, this blog, for and by writers of horror stories and books, has an interview with Deborah LeBlanc, president of the Horror Writers Asociation (HWA).
"I think readers help define genres, especially genre subcategories. Take paranormal romance for example. Many romance readers prefer to stick to that particular genre and if asked, would probably say they don’t read much, if any, ‘horror.’ But somewhere between Anne Rice and Laurel K. Hamilton romance and horror mated, thus creating paranormal romance, something most readers of both genres enjoy."

Tell me about it. I could possibly write a romantic horror compilation of short stories based on my dates.

Here's another example of why it's necessary to live the story, i.e. to use the landscape of your mind, in order to put some heart and soul into your writing. Writers' block leads to Vietnam vet. What exactly is that you gain by writing about a subject without knowing squat about how it feels to be in the same situation? You live a situation, and if it's worth writing about, the book comes out.

The Hungarian writers' association is broke. Seems the Hungarian government, umm...forgot to throw out the annual scraps to keep the HWA alive. Read the sad story here.
"..the state did not pay the subsidy necessary for the association's operation until December, and did not even send a contract about it."
Tsk.Tsk. Hey! HWA - Horror writers' association. HWA - Hungarian writers' association. But judging from the sad state of affairs of Hungarian writers, it could well mean the same, huh?