A Privilege Playing with you Tonight

I’ll never forget the first time I cried during a live action movie. I’d cried at animated movies before, of course. The classic tearjerkers - Bambi, The Lion King, and of course The Land Before Time. But live action movies hadn’t hit me the same way. Probably a large part of that was the kind …

Write to Market 3: Stop. Trying. To. Cash in. On. COVID-19.

I’ve talked previously on what it means to write to market - you can see part 1 here and part 2 here - and I’d thought I’d said all I had to say on the subject. But this, like so many things, changed with the advent of COVID-19. The first true pandemic of the modern …

2019 Roundup or I Got Sick Again, Have Some Links

I’ve not been feeling great the past couple of days. It happens. I was going to do this post at the beginning of the year, but decided to instead save it for a day just like today, when I wasn’t feeling well. So, instead of my normal post, here’s some of my favorite things I’ve …

Reality is not Dark, so Why is Realistic Fiction?

Have you heard of The Magicians? If you’ve been browsing Facebook at all lately, you probably have, since I think they’ve sunk pretty much all the marketing budget in the world into their latest advertising campaign. I’ve never watched the show or read the books, so the phrase “Fillory with Fen” has about as much …

Coffee and Books – Write to Market Deconstructed 2, Electric Boogaloo

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post about why the “Write to market” advice so many people get is...not as simple as it seems. I suggest you check it out, because - as the title indicates - this is a sequel to that. And, like that post, this one is going to reference …

7 Things I Tried for NaNo (That Failed)

So we’re in the middle of National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, and I haven’t even talked about it yet. That’s just not how things are done around here, and I decided it was time to fix it. Now, last year I made some posts about NaNo and tips and tricks for managing it.  Stay motivated …

Book Launch Parties are the Best – Here’s Why

After my off-the-cuff Friday post being nostaligic about old friends, I got to have a party with current friends. Laura, my editor and closest friend, threw me a book launch party. It was completely unexpected and an immensely fun - I even got a cake with Strange Cosmology’s cover on it. Look at it! And …

What to do when your Characters won’t Cooperate

One piece of writing advice I see fairly often is “let the characters do what they want.” On the whole, this is not bad advice - it tends to lead to a more organic story, and your characters will feel more believable. However, like most advice delivered in short, easy to remember phrases, the truth …

Ducks in a Row – what you need to know before publishing on Amazon

In case you missed me talking about it, I have a new book! Strange Cosmology, the sequel to Weird Theology, is on pre-order now. This has, obviously, gotten me thinking about the publishing process a lot. On top of that, I’ve had a lot of friends and random people ask me what they need to …

Hey Writers, Enough with the Gatekeeping

“You’re not a real writer unless…” How many times have you seen something like on your social media? Because, if your internet experience is anything like mine, it’s damn near everywhere. Writers trying to add criteria to the process, saying that if you don’t complete task X, Y, or Z, you don’t get to call …