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Ernest Hemingway and The Gag Reflex
When I first started writing, I wanted someone to read my prose and tell me, “Yeah. I like this. It didn’t make me gag.” The fear that my word choice and grammatical constructions would make anyone reading my work want to hurl was a continuing phobia of mine for several years as I wrote…
The Writer’s Death Spiral Confessional
With the emergence of the new writing and publishing paradigm, a new hazard has risen from the ashes of the old world like a post-apocalyptic pied piper. I’m calling it the Writer’s Death Spiral. You start off with an idea, maybe an idea for a book, or a series, or just that you…
Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMos Past
NaNoWriMo: The Basics For anyone who doesn’t know—and unless you’re involved in writing, why would you?—NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month aka November aka What The Heck Was I Thinking. NaNoWriMo, frequently shortened to Nano, has a long history, beginning back in 1999. The goal is to write a novel in a month, but you…
The Archbishop’s Amulet on Kindlescout
Well, it’s pretty exciting. I decided to try out Kindle Scout. Basically, you have a book, you put it on Kindle Scout, and they provide a page for you. People (aka readers) can come to your “campaign” page, read an excerpt of the book, and decide whether they want your book to be published by…
Creating A Simple e-Book Cover
I started writing a long discussion on how to design an e-book cover, what you’re looking for when it comes to cover art, fonts, and all that. And then I realized everyone would be falling asleep if they weren’t already playing around with GIMP or Photoshop and putting some covers together. I’m a big believer…
Vile Money-Grubber Cover
My latest book, a novelette, is named Dorothea’s Diaries: Vile Money-Grubber. The story follows Dorothea Ohmie as she tries to re-integrate into Hellas civilian society after serving time for war crimes. The Martian nation of Hellas began its existence in the Hellas Basin on Mars, hence the name. With my initial cover, the cover I…
Mining Your Life
I’m staring at a blank screen with a blinking cursor that seems to be saying, “OK. Great. Now what? Now what? Now what?” What can I possibly write about in a blog that anyone in their right or wrong minds could possibly want to read about and find useful? The obvious answer is exactly that: …
Windhaven
I wrote my first novel after a friend of mine, a co-worker at a software company, asked if I could come up with a story for a web-comic that he wanted to make. He knew I loved comic-books, that I loved to read science fiction and fantasy, and that I’d been a songwriter for many…