HEIDI RUBY MILLER

REVIEWS I'm one of twenty-five writers blogging a chapter from Alison Kent's new Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance . Because I write speculative fiction, as do most people who read my blog, I asked for Chapter 5 Writing 101: World-Building. Here Kent touches upon the basics in world building for any type of novel with tips on research and description, as well as fitting your characters into the world you've built. In regards to research, Kent is spot on by reminding writers "if your story doesn't require you use all you've learned, don't create a need for those extraneous facts." She also explains the difference between an infodump and exposition, encouraging writers to show descriptive details through your character's POV. Of particular interest to SF and Fantasy writers are the sections titled Blinded by Science and Logic and Consistency . Here Kent warns of following the rules of science or magic within your world ...

PUBLICATIONS My horror flash fiction story Mara's Jellyfish is up at Alien Skin Magazine . You can read it for free.

I've tried to pattern my own female protagonist a little after Sydney Bristow from Alias because she's one of the few female heroes who has a vulnerable, feminine side and makes no apologies for showing it. (Part of this goes back to a discussion Diana Botsford, Christopher Paul Carey, and I had on the SHU boards this past semester.) She knows she is just as beautiful in sweats with a ponytail as she is in evening wear and full make-up. She can kick ass better than most men but still cry without shame when she's hurt emotionally. And, she can be deceptive yet still loyal to friends and family. The biggest flaw I see in Sydney and in many of my own characters? She's no fun. Is that how a hero has to be?

GROUPS After our three hour chat last night I was inspired to post this pic of my critique group from Seton Hill University. Heidi Ruby Miller, Christopher Paul Carey, Mary SanGiovanni, and Rachael Pruitt

Poem Ode to Farscape F relling awesome series! A eryn Sun and John Crichton, cutest couple ever crystallized R ygel, father of hundreds, ruler of billions S carrans, they make storm troopers look like kittens C ult following to rival Buffy's A nybody else get Jool and Sikozu mixed up? P lease make a feature film, pretty please. E instein should have kept that wormhole info. to himself.

Poems Here's my Ode to Han Solo in honor of tonight's midnight showing of Star Wars III . (And, yes, I know he's not in this one, but I'm a Gen-Xer , so I'm partial to the originals.) H as a hairy companion A version to carbonite N erf herder, according to some S muggler who sometimes gets boarded O wed Jabba a lot of money L ady Vader's husband O fficer in the Rebel Alliance

Books Echoes of Earth by Sean Williams and Shane Dix There are only two books that I’ve read twice: Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Echoes of Earth by Sean Williams and Shane Dix . In the case of Wrinkle, I wanted to see if a childhood favorite would hold the same magic after fifteen years-and, yes, it did-but, for Echoes, it was all about the book’s style. I don’t know which of these guys deserves credit for the great dialog and likeable characters and which one has the knack for creating interesting places, but the combination of the three left scenes from the book floating in my mind long after I had read them. Since I strive for the memorability factor in my own writing, I dissected a scene to discover what made it so lasting for me. In Chapter 1.1.9, the protagonist, Peter Alander, visits the second of ten enormous alien-built spindles that surround the planet Adrasteia in the Upsilon Aquarius system, over seventy-two light-years from Earth. The chapter op...