NaNoWriMo 2015 #SFWAPro

National Novel Writing Month is always held in November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. For the new author, it’s a daunting task. 50,000 words looks like Everest to somebody who has never put that many words together. It is, however, a very achievable goal. 50,000… Continue reading

Let’s Talk About Point of View

It’s a big decision It really is. When an author sits down at the keyboard and looks at a blank file, there are choices to make. One of those decisions is point of view. In other words, whose eyes are we seeing the story through? The default is to select… Continue reading

Reflection on Being an Idle Author

Writing is a lonely existence much of the time. Because certain life situations have made it difficult to travel to conventions over the past decade, it’s easy to feel out of touch with the rest of the SFF community. That’s why events like the mass author signing at Poisoned Pen… Continue reading

Friend Asked: How to Find an Agent

Recently, I got a message from a friend. He told me a relative was 30,000 words into a novel and wanted to know how to find an agent. Now, this is a perfectly legitimate question, but the timing was wrong. No agent or editor will show any interest in a… Continue reading

My 2 Cents Worth

I had not intended to write this post today, but I got wind of a blog post by Mary Robinette Kowal via a blog post by John Scalzi, which I learned about through a twitter post from yet another party. This isn’t about Mary, but the topic she shines a… Continue reading

Self-Editing is Hard

Yesterday, I posted about writing being hard. Today, let’s discuss the concept that Self-Editing is hard. When you write, it’s an attempt to take a concept from inside your head and communicate it to other people. Some writing fails because the complete thought doesn’t make it to the page. Other… Continue reading

Early New Years Resolution for 2014

It’s time for me to ramp up the writing in 2014. I’ve assembled a list of goals that I would like to accomplish in 2-14. they are: 1. Finish edits on “A Darkling Nine” by end of February and start circulating to agents. 2. Write first draft of “Proxima Centauri”… Continue reading

Monday Status Report – 812/13

While the business side took a bit of a rest this past week while my parents were in town, I did manage to start scraping the cobwebs away from my short fiction writing skills. I finished a slightly longer than flash fiction story called Old Rock Stars last week and… Continue reading

Thursday Thoughts – Writing Amid Chaos

Writing at Entropy Central If you are a writer with offspring living in the house, You know very well that the chaos that erupts from “special events” can completely derail writing time. The real problem is that “special events” happen all the time. Over the past several months, the “special… Continue reading