So as you may have noticed, I generally blog a lot less nowadays than I did just a couple of years ago. That doesn’t mean I don’t blog at all, or that I don’t value keeping a blog, but it’s just not something I do as frequently as I used to. I’ve been wondering why… Continue reading Blogging vs. journal writing
Tag: Thoughts and Reflections
Thoughts on the danger of falling in love with your characters
As a writer, I spend so much time in the heads of my viewpoint characters that I can’t help but like them. So it sometimes comes as a surprise when readers get frustrated and want to slap my characters around. To be fair, sometimes I do that on purpose. For example, in Stars of Blood… Continue reading Thoughts on the danger of falling in love with your characters
Thoughts on American Sniper
Yesterday, I saw American Sniper. In a word, it was fantastic. Super intense—so much that the friend I went to see it with had to walk out in the middle—but well, well worth it. The movie is about Chris Kyle, a US sniper in Iraq who had an incredible number of kills. He’s credited with… Continue reading Thoughts on American Sniper
Things I want to learn in 2015
I was going to follow up my retrospective 2014 post with another one, but instead I want to look ahead at the things I hope to learn in 2015. Of course, I’m sure that many of the things I’ll learn are things that I couldn’t have foreseen, but it helps to have some direction to… Continue reading Things I want to learn in 2015
Thoughts on the new Star Wars trailer
I have a lot of thoughts on the new Star Wars trailer. But first, a little background. Growing up in the 90s, I was a huge Star Wars fan. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Star Wars was my life. I played X-Wing every day, I watched at least one of the original trilogy… Continue reading Thoughts on the new Star Wars trailer
The next big dream
When I graduated from college, my goal for my writing career was this: to make a living telling stories that I love. It seemed, at the time, like an impossible dream–something so far out of my reach that I couldn’t possibly achieve it without years and years of constantly frustrated effort. Well, guess what? For… Continue reading The next big dream
Excited for a new old project
So a couple of weeks ago, I picked up the manuscript for a novel I’d written years ago, looking to see how much work it would take to salvage it. It’s a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, with James McCoy (again) as the main character. Long-time readers of this blog may remember it as… Continue reading Excited for a new old project
How going indie is like driving a manual (plus a cover reveal)
A couple of weeks ago, I got a new (to me) car. It’s a 2005 Ford Focus / Saleen: a two-door hatchback that drives like a racing car and gets about thirty miles per gallon (WA-A-AY better than the gas guzzler I was driving before). It’s also a manual transmission, which is perhaps the biggest… Continue reading How going indie is like driving a manual (plus a cover reveal)
Thoughts on writers, reviewers, and stalkers
The bookish side of the English-speaking internet exploded last week with an article in The Guardian about an author who stalked a Goodreads reviewer, showing up unannounced on the reviewer’s doorstep and going to great lengths to expose the reviewer’s identity. The crazy part–or crazier, I guess, since the whole thing is batshit crazy–is that… Continue reading Thoughts on writers, reviewers, and stalkers
What readers want
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what science fiction and fantasy readers want in the books they read. I’m in the middle of writing and publishing a series of novellas and short novels, so it’s definitely on my mind. After publishing twenty books and completing another novella series, I think I have a pretty… Continue reading What readers want