I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday hashing out the details of the latest Five Rims installment with my good friend and collaborator Jack Johnson. If you don’t have a writing group from which you can bounce ideas around, you need to at least get a good friend who is also a writer or at least anContinue reading “The Lost Soul and Characterization”
Tag Archives: fiction
3 Ways to Prevent Your Female Heroine From Being Cliche
These days there seems to be a trend in fiction and in film to write strong female characters, characters that are strong on their own without the need for a romantic interest. We can find examples of these most recently in Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, as the trend continues (as hasContinue reading “3 Ways to Prevent Your Female Heroine From Being Cliche”
New Podcast Up: 15 Things About 2015
In this episode we take a look back at 2015 and discuss 15 things that each of us thought were noteworthy in the realm of fiction and media. We also discuss the things we thought were not that noteworthy. Of course, each of these things are discussed from a writer’s perspective. Find the episode here.
Being An Indie Novelist is Tough, But Rewarding
It’s time to rant. I haven’t had serious time to work on the second book in my science-fiction series because I have been swamped with the day job, and swamped with my side jobs. I’m a high school English teacher by trade, and at the start of the year I had things under control. However,Continue reading “Being An Indie Novelist is Tough, But Rewarding”
New Podcast Up: Antman’s Shrinking Plot
In this reformatted episode we take a different approach to the podcast. We decided from here on out to pick a pop culture film or book or comic book and spend the podcast discussing that piece from a writer’s perspective. Today we decided to discuss the recent Marvel offering “Antman”. It led to some livelyContinue reading “New Podcast Up: Antman’s Shrinking Plot”
5* Reviewed Novel Only .99 Cents For A Limited Time
It’s time for another promotion, and so I have listed my latest science-fiction mystery-thriller novel Come Apart for a low low Kindle price of .99 cents for this week. It will remain .99 cents for the week, but revert back to $2.99 on Monday the 22nd. It has garnered some really good reviews, butContinue reading “5* Reviewed Novel Only .99 Cents For A Limited Time”
Don’t Feed the Negative Body Image
I am currently teaching an adjunct course at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. It is a literature course, and last week one of the readings was a poem by Marge Piercy entitled “Barbie Doll”. Here is the poem, and the discussion about it comes after: Barbie Doll This girlchild was born as usual and presentedContinue reading “Don’t Feed the Negative Body Image”
My New Short Story “Rust” Is Published in Literary Juice
I’ve been waiting to announce this, but a science fiction short story I wrote a while back entitled Rust has been published in the online literary magazine Literary Juice. I’m so excited to be published by this excellent magazine, and now you can finally read this story that was the stuff of my nightmares. Find the storyContinue reading “My New Short Story “Rust” Is Published in Literary Juice”
Writing An Ending First
My latest work in progress, Come Apart, has been a year long experiment to see if I could write the final chapter of a book first and then build the rest of the novel around that final chapter. I can tell you that the progress has been a challenge. This all started when I read Pines by BlakeContinue reading “Writing An Ending First”
When Do You Hit Your Stride?
Writing a novel like writing anything is hard work. It takes determination, skill and careful planning to get a novel off the ground. It is definitely not like writing a short story or a poem because of the sheer amount of words necessary, the characterization, the subplots and all of the other bells and whistlesContinue reading “When Do You Hit Your Stride?”
Writing Is Hard Work 