How a Writer Beats the Coronavirus Blues

As a creative, someone who is hyper-sensitive to emotional cues, I am bombarded with this so much that I am overwhelmed. Sitting down to write about it is at once therapeutic and also necessary. I’ve decided to do a few things to get me through it, and also to help me actually get back to writing.

Works That Inspire Writing Day 3: Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”

I know I haven’t been doing these day-to-day, but I’ve been trying to keep my students engaged online during this pandemic. However, today’s piece is one of my favorite Robert Heinlein novels: “Starship Troopers”. Unfortunately, Paul Verhoven is forever linked to this amazing novel, having made a horrible adaptation of the book. The novel indeed

5 Things to Consider Before Writing a NaNoWriMo Outline

The annual National Novel Writing Month (November) is only a few weeks away.  If you haven’t started on your outline for the event, then you’re in luck!  I’ve narrowed down the five most important things you should think about before you start work on it. Overkill – I’m sure you have a germ of a

5 Myths About Writing Science Fiction

So you want to write a science fiction novel.  However, you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing.  Perhaps you read science fiction like this humble author and you’d like to try your hand at writing something in the science fiction genre. Well, there are a few myths about science fiction novelists, and I’m

Philip K. Dick and a Writer’s Subconscious

Currently I’m working on the third and final book in the Five Rims trilogy: “The Shibboleth Code”. It is an arduous task, and even though I love the characters and the setting and I feel like I’m really bringing the story to a close, I am so ready to get on with another book. I have ideas

Vlog Writing Tip: Writing a Sequel is Tough

3 Ways to Make Minor Characters More Colorful

YouTube Site Launch!

I’ve written on this blog about what I’m going to do to help promote myself a bit more.  Now that Ryan and I have moved on from the podcast to other things, I decided to get hopping on a YouTube channel where I’ll offer funny videos (mostly with my kids who are my life), audio

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 has

New Podcast Up: Star Wars – The Bluray

On this episode we get our grubby mitts on the Force Awakens bluray and talk about its lack of special features. We also discuss other television writing of merit and what we can learn from these tv writers. Find the episode here.