7
01, 2016
Putting the pretty on it
The beauty of words is that they paint pictures in the mind, but when you consider those black lines, dots, and curves on a blank backdrop, words themselves are nothing to write home about.
22
09, 2015
Pondering my next writing project
My favorite questions tend to start with “what if.” Lately, however, this writer has been asking himself, “What now?”
15
10, 2014
The pros get paid, plain and simple
Once you establish the worth of a product—whether it’s a frozen pizza or national news—it’s awfully difficult to convince people they should have been paying along.
30
04, 2014
The problem with invincible protagonists
I must have killed hundreds of people over the years. Since I’m a writer of sword-and-sorcery fantasy, death come with the territory.
21
03, 2014
Dissecting the difficulties of writing a sequel
A writer’s mind can be a dangerous thing. Perhaps the most notorious forms of self-sabotage are writer’s block and a related syndrome: the sophomore slump.
22
08, 2013
Building a better book title
Titles represent anywhere from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of words. They have to be worthy of all that hard work you put into your short story, novella or novel. And they must be marketable.
5
06, 2013
What’s in a (brand) name?
When one first decides to become a novelist, many important questions come to mind: What kind of stories should I write? Should I use my real name or invent something better? Can I pull off the pipe and beard look?
22
05, 2013
Writing Poll: real name vs. pen name
For anyone writing fiction: under what name have you/will you publish your work?
9
01, 2013
What would J.R.R. Tolkien do?
While watching the new Hobbit movie, I couldn’t help but wonder what the grandfather of the fantasy genre would think of the adaptation of his 1937 novel.
4
10, 2012
The tricky trek toward those two little words
In my experience, writing the end of a novel has to be the hardest part.