The look of a Writer

Two posts in one day! Aren't you lucky, dear readers!

I finally received my September 2005 issue of Locus magazine, the one for Fantasy and Science Fiction books, or as I like to call it, the One Magazine I Subscribe To That Allows Ugly People On the Cover. Most writer's aren't ugly, and I know this, but the cover photos are spectacularly unremarkable, if not unflattering. Most of the famous, established authors featured are plump middle-aged women in bobs with cats-eye glasses, or else old men in long, Old-Testament style beards who are balding a little on top. The only exception to this rule seems to be Neil Gaiman, who always manages to look like an angry rock star with his lips twisted into an arrogantly cool pout and his hair in his eyes. Anyone who had any part in writing 1602 deserves to look like cool. Well done!

I hope to be on the cover of Locus sometime. It's a magazine that doesn't seem to get the same amount of subscribers as, say, Entertainment Weekly, but it's always exciting to read about who's sold their 87th book for a six-figure sum, or who has delivered their long awaited trilogy to their agent, or who has had to split their original manuscript into two books because as a whole, it is so long that it is physically impossible make a single book that size (hint, hint, George R. R. Martin). It's edited by a man named Charles Brown, and his Editorial is often diverting, although it seems as if he can't go a day without eating supper at a famous author's house or restaurant and drinking a great deal of wine. His editorials go something like this, "Read What'sherface's book, which was very good, then I went to dinner with her and ate this and this, which were delicious, and then I met Someone Someone, and we shared a delicious lunch where I ate too much, and the next day I went to a conference where I met Whatshisname, and we couldn't stop talking all the way to the lobster restaurant..." You get the idea. What a life! Reading, writing, and eating lobster with celebrity writers. Awesome.

While reading about writing can be fun, I'd like to read more about the writers themselves. I'm already a devoted Snarkling (of Miss Snark, Literary Agent, at misssnark.blogspot.com) even though I've only been reading her blog for three weeks, but I'd also like to find the blogs of professional writers as well. I know Neil Gaiman, Rock Star/Comic Guru/Famous Fantasy Author has one, and does the man who edits for Tor Publishing, but I'd also like to see if Robin Hobb (aka Megan Lindholm) has a blog, or if Tad Williams has a blog.

I'm pretty sure Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens have sorta missed the boat on this phenomenon, but if you happen to know any interesting fantasy author blogs, be sure to mention it in my comments.