Picking up the pace

I’m writing this post from somewhere in Iowa, riding the California Zephyr from Chicago to Salt Lake City. Since I hate sleeping on the train, I figured now is as good a time as any to write a blog post. One of the good things about traveling by train is that you have lots of… Continue reading Picking up the pace

Struggling not to settle

I’m in the middle of my first revision pass through Heart of the Nebula, direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, and…I don’t know exactly how to put this, but the story seems to be simultaneously smoother and more shallow.  Plot-wise, everything works great; character-wise, there just doesn’t seem to be as much depth as my… Continue reading Struggling not to settle

Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

After getting about 40% through Star Wanderers 1.0, I hit a wall and decided to put the project on the back burner for now.  The beginning part, which I’m hoping to shop around as a novelette, has some issues with it and those are keeping me from making any real progress in the rest of… Continue reading Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

Why I’m not a fan of writing groups

I was listening to a recent episode of I Should Be Writing today, and it got me thinking about writing groups and how my philosophy on them has changed.  Long story short, I used to love them, but now I’m not such a huge fan. I should probably start out by mentioning that I lead… Continue reading Why I’m not a fan of writing groups

New upload and thoughts on ebooks

Yesterday, I reformatted Genesis Earth and uploaded the new version to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.  Basically, I took everything I’ve learned about ebook formatting in the last few months and brought it up to date. Here’s the complete list of changes: Revised author’s note to include Facebook and Goodreads links, mention of newsletter,… Continue reading New upload and thoughts on ebooks

Part I of Star Wanderers is finished!

That’s right–I was up until about 2 am last night finishing it.  Man, time goes by fast sometimes.  This is probably just the first part of a much longer novel, but I hit a good stopping point so I’ll probably put it on the back burner for now while I finish Edenfall and do a… Continue reading Part I of Star Wanderers is finished!

Just following my bliss

They say the way you know you’re a writer is if you can’t not write.  Well, last week I had the gratification of experiencing that again firsthand. For all of August, I was more or less betwen projects and not writing a lot of new material. I’d just epublished Bringing Stella Home and was busy getting… Continue reading Just following my bliss

Edenfall update

So I haven’t exactly gotten into a good writing routine yet, but Edenfall is coming along pretty well.  I’m just about finished with the first chapter, and the dominoes are already starting to fall. It’s fun to revisit the world of Genesis Earth, but I’m not going to get too bogged down in recapping the… Continue reading Edenfall update

Plans for Edenfall

I’m trying something a little different with Edenfall: I’m writing the first draft entirely in longhand. I first got the idea a couple of years ago, when I was camping in Moab.  The beautiful landscape of southern Utah made me realize that I wanted to write Edenfall while experiencing that sort of connection with nature, and pen and paper seemed to… Continue reading Plans for Edenfall

Am I a jerk?

Today, a longtime writing friend told me that she wants nothing to do with me, which made me very sad.  I hope she will reconsider, and if she does, I’d gladly welcome her back as my friend.  However, because it’s come to my attention that some of my other friends feel that I come across… Continue reading Am I a jerk?