Giving a Protagonist a Hidden Motivation

Recently I have been in the middle of writing the first installment of a new series entitled The Five Rims.  The first book is titled The Last Terran, and my protagonist is definitely out of the ordinary. Guillermo March is a former security officer with the C’Tuulian Planetary Police Force, the only Terran to work for them,

New Podcast Up: Choosing a Creative Writing Course Near Gotham

In this episode we discuss the pros and cons of taking a creative writing class and what a budding writer should look for in such a class. This all comes from an article in “The Guardian” that claims that creative writing classes may be killing western literature. Not sure about that… But heaven knows we’ve

Short Story Writing Challenge #amwriting

I’ve been writing novels now since 2007.  I’ve written three novels and one self-help book. Frankly, I’m a little burned out. I decided that during the month of July I would try to write one short story every three days.  By the time I was done, I’d have 10 solid short stories to put into

5 Things to Do When You’ve Written a Stinker

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that writing is indeed hard work.  It takes a lot of time and effort and like anything that is done well it is sometimes difficult to make it work.  I think of that story about Thomas Edison who failed over 100 times to make

Writing As Therapy

Today my students started reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s The Yellow Wallpaper, an early feminist story about a woman who is not allowed to write because it might upset her “delicate condition”.  This started me thinking about what writing means to me beyond the overall joy of seeing my ideas and crazy plot lines taking on a

While Waiting On the Agent…I’ll Revise Again…and Again

I did it, or rather God has blessed me, and I currently have an agent trying to shop This Broken Earth to a couple of publishing houses.  I received some very good criticism from the literary agent, criticism that would make for a much better book if I were to tweak here and cut there.  My agent

I Am Offering Editing Services

As you may notice, I have a new tab at the top of my blog page.  At the request of several people I have decided to offer editing services to anyone who wishes to have their novel or short story chopped down to a more workable form.  The following are the details: 1.  I will

If You Can’t Find a Writer’s Group, Join a Forum

Being a part of a writing group is absolutely necessary when writing anything that people will read.  If you sit alone at your computer, churning out self-published novels without the input and critique of others you are only reaching half of your potential as a writer.  Writer’s groups pull this potential out of you and