Let’s keep it simple, folks: I am giving away five copies of Cold Iron. While the buzz of the book has been positive overall, it’s also been relatively quiet. I need to amp up the signal, get more people interested, ensure that the work I’m putting out is, in fact, worth the asking price. I… Continue reading Cold Iron Giveaway!
Category: Writing
Pulp Problems
I’ve been struggling to put together the sci-fi serial I want to start. I’ve come at some concepts from a couple angles, but they’ve been either too derivative or too preachy. My desire to brush up a tried-and-true aspect of the sci-fi genre should not have ‘fixing Star Wars’ as an end goal. The end… Continue reading Pulp Problems
Keeping It Real
I’m a sucker for the fantastical and out-there just as much as any nerd. I grew up adoring the concept of giant fighting robots that disguised themselves as cars. I like faster-than-light travel, I love dragons, superheroes do not seem ridiculous to me, and I believe anything is possible when the human mind is set… Continue reading Keeping It Real
Writer Report: Writer At Work
When you publish your own work, you have a lot of balls to keep in the air. You have to keep writing, first and foremost, but you also have to keep up the sales work, illicit opinions and reviews, get a feel for how the work is being received, so on and so forth. As… Continue reading Writer Report: Writer At Work
The New Mythology
Some of our stories are hundreds or even thousands of years old. Every once in a while, a book or TV series will claim it has an ‘all-new’ story, but in reality most of the plot points and character turns have probably been told before. This is likely not a conscious decision of the writer,… Continue reading The New Mythology
Rogers' Rules
Meet John Rogers. You may know him as the writer for projects like Leverage. He’s also a stand-up comic, video gamer, and dissector of storytelling. In playing Fiasco with Wil Wheaton, he’s conveyed three of the best rules for storytelling I’ve heard since I’ve tried to memorize most if not all of the advice distributed… Continue reading Rogers' Rules
Writer Report: One Week
I’ve never really considered myself a salesman. Yet, that is one of the many hats one has to wear when publishing one’s own work. It’s probably part of what deters some folks from taking that step: not only do you have to write the thing, revise it until it’s decent, and get some lovely volunteers… Continue reading Writer Report: One Week
Spectacles with Smarts
There was a time when I could buy the argument of a fictional work being fun for its own sake. Specatcle that aims to be nothing but spectacle has its place, usually in the skies above parking lots as fireworks explode in the darkness. But in the arenas of storytelling, be it printed or in… Continue reading Spectacles with Smarts
Writer Report: Have A Plan
So while I continue to come to grips with the pulp science fiction yarn I want to spin, I may have started on a sequel to Cold Iron. On the one hand, it may be a bit presumptuous to already be writing a second story in a series when the first hasn’t been printed yet;… Continue reading Writer Report: Have A Plan
Shifting Tone
I was bantering with some friends recently about True Blood, and how this season feels different from the previous one. There is a lot more emphasis on vampire political and para-military shenanigans, and less on messy or convoluted love triangles. It’s a shift in tone that, personally, I am 100% behind, and it makes me… Continue reading Shifting Tone
