Alyx Dellamonica

Tumblr account for fantasy author and writing instructor A.M. Dellamonica.

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Meaner than a junkyard... writing teacher?

Meaner than a junkyard… writing teacher?

One of the things that is sometimes debated within various pockets of the literary community is the question of whether writing, (or presumably, by extension, any art) can be taught. Though many authors currently practice workshopping in some form, though a good number of us have availed ourselves of night classes, MFAs, opportunities like Viable Paradise or Alpha, and certificate programs like…

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A few shots from the U of T This is one of those experimental posts that comes of the Internet having improved itself without my permission.

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Stark, simple, infinite: Sarah Gailey Inksplains her #tattoos @gaileyfrey

Stark, simple, infinite: Sarah Gailey Inksplains her #tattoos @gaileyfrey

Hugo and Campbell award finalist Sarah Gailey is an internationally-published writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction has been published by Mashable and the Boston Globe, and she is a regular contributor for Tor.com and Barnes & Noble. Her most recent fiction credits include Mothership Zeta, Fireside Fiction, and the Speculative Bookshop Anthology. Her debut novella, River of Teeth,…

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Swingin' into spring cleaning, starting with the internets

Swingin’ into spring cleaning, starting with the internets

I dictated the draft of this post last night, into my phone, from a comfy seat on the shores of Lake Ontario. I had to pass a few thousand hockey fans to get here; I had not realized a playoff game was happening tonight, but the crowds were identically dressed, good tempered, and very, very huge.

It was worth swimming against the throngs. I ended up looking at calm water and listening to the…

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Caboose of the Whimsically Tardy 2016 Reading List

Caboose of the Whimsically Tardy 2016 Reading List

On Monday I posted a rundown on all of my 2016 reading except new-to-me books: the student projects, rereads, short fiction, first chapters, you name it. Today, I give you the things I read from cover to cover.

One of the great things about being a writer is that you sometimes get to see advance copies of books, and I got to look at a few such things, some of which are out now, some of which are…

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Whimsically Tardy 2016 Reading Post

Whimsically Tardy 2016 Reading Post

In 2016 I read approximately 120 stories and/or partial novels from students, pieces ranging in length from 1,000 words to 25,000, and wrote a critique for each and every one.  I also read over fifty stories, novelettes and novellas for the Heiresses of Russ 2016 anthology, which I co-edited with Steve Berman. Most of those, naturally, I read twice.

Because of the anthology, I was often very…

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Happy Groundhog Day! Where's Our Reset Button?

Happy Groundhog Day! Where’s Our Reset Button?

I have been intermittently absent from social media of late, and blogging even less. I’m not alone, I know. Finding ways to keep an eye on the headlines without being caught by undertows of despair is a challenge I know many of us are facing.

I’m going to marches and writing to politicians and contributing, intermittently, to political signal boost efforts. I’m thinking about best practices for…

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Rounding out the year with a good review for The Nature of a Pirate

Rounding out the year with a good review for The Nature of a Pirate

I woke this morning to this lovely piece, from The Book Wars:

Sophie fills a niche in the genre as she is a post grad student whose academic nature often gets her in trouble but whose life makes for entertaining reading. The world Dellamonica has created continues to amaze with its increasing level of complexity.

On a completely other note, I (somewhat ineptly, I must admit) made a little Tweet…

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Faith Mudge gets her Heroine from the Lowood School

Faith Mudge gets her Heroine from the Lowood School

Faith Mudge

Faith Mudge is a writer from Queensland, Australia, with a passion for fantasy, folk tales and mythology from all over the world – in fact, for almost anything with a glimmer of the fantastical. Her stories have appeared in various anthologies, including Kaleidoscope, Cranky Ladies of History, Hear Me Roar and Daughters of Frankenstein: Lesbian Mad Scientists. She posts reviews and…

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What We Inherited: Eugene Fischer on Heiresses of Russ (@glorioushubris)

What We Inherited opens today with author Eugene Fischer‘s answer to my question about categorizing stories–tagging them with qualities that highlight sexual preference, gender, ability, or race: I think that the purpose of this kind of categorization is to tell marginalized people, “Hey, you know that thing that’s really personally important to you but broadly culturally ignored? It’s important…

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How to make an author's day in one simple step...

How to make an author’s day in one simple step…

A fan named GJones says, in the comments thread of my essay “Grownups are the Enemy.”

…I’ll mention that I shared one of your short stories, “The Cage”, with my friends as a specific example of doing things right; namely, having characters deal with a violent male antagonist through legal means and the strength of their community, *without* needing a male authority figure to confront him, and…

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What We Inherited: Priya Sharma on Heiresses of Russ

What We Inherited: Priya Sharma on Heiresses of Russ

What We Inherited opens today with author Priya Sharma‘s answer to my question about what a phrase like “lesbian-themed story” might mean in 2017: I think there’s lots of experiences under the umbrella term of “lesbian themed fiction” that have yet to be written about, from a whole load of different cultural and social perspectives. It’ll be exciting to read about those experiences.

I’ve asked…

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Award-eligible 2016 works In addition to my newest novel, The Nature of a Pirate, officially out as of last Tuesday, I've had three works of short fiction see release in 2016.

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Review Repost: Stephen King's It (from @tordotcom)

Review Repost: Stephen King’s It (from @tordotcom)

A number of years ago I decided it would be fun to have a look at some of the classic horror novels from the 1980s: to revisit Dean Koontz, Clive Barker Peter Straub, V.C. Andrews and, inevitably, Stephen King. I loved King as a teen, and I chose this particular book because It has the hallmarks of a master work while, simultaneously, being deeply problematic. My difficulties with It are the same…

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What We Inherited: Bo Balder on Heiresses of Russ

What We Inherited: Bo Balder on Heiresses of Russ

What We Inherited opens today with a quote from author Bo Balder: I think lesbian-themed fiction would have been a tiny corner of the market in the past, and now it’s much more out there, much more mainstream. Women in fiction are stronger, more diverse in every possible aspect than they’ve ever been before. We’re not talking Bechdel anymore, or Rayne Hall, it’s WOMAN across the board.

I’ve asked

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This is your Origin Story: Giveaway and Interview

This is your Origin Story: Giveaway and Interview

Today is the The Nature of a Pirate book birthday and you get the presents! Here’s a giveaway of all three Hidden Sea Tales books, along with an interview containing a proposition I’ve been wanting to share:

There’s a story we tell here in the west. We tell it over and over. In it, you are sleeping in your pit in the castle kitchen, your only reward a crust of bread and the faint hope that Chef…

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Where I'm going, where I'm at, where I've been

Where I’m going, where I’m at, where I’ve been

As I write these word I am sitting on a VIA train bound from Toronto to Ottawa; Kelly and I are going just for the night, to hang out with friends and bask in the wonders of an emerging arty phenomenon known as The Timberhouse. I had a terrific time in Ottawa when I went to CanCon in August, and am looking forward to getting to know the city better. Our nation’s capital moved up the bucket list…

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