A little over three months days ago, I decided it was time to stop procrastinating, and begin making writing a regular part of my life, a given, a habit not easily broken, like sleeping, eating, reading, and bodily functions not normally mentioned in polite company. My approach was to demand of myself that I write […]
Read MoreEDITED TO ADD (with a huge facepalm): Oh, and I won the SF Comet contest! Another year over A new one just begun It may be corny to the point of maudlinity* to quote this particular song by Mr Lennon, but I can’t help getting a bit reflective upon the new year. Big changes occurred in […]
Read MoreHere’s the first few paragraphs of my new story The Allocution of Bob Hayward, of which the first draft stands completed at 5250 words: Well Judge, what you have to understand is that Shane is… was no wizard. He wasn’t a magician. Hell, he couldn’t even do card tricks. When we used to play poker […]
Read MoreSix-and-a-half years after my first—and, so far, only—foray into NaNoWriMo country, I’ve finally dared to read back the manuscript I wrote in November of 2007, and it wasn’t half as painful as I feared. In fact, I’m rather pleased with it, first draft though it is. It gave me some shivers, chills and actual emotional […]
Read MoreAnother story was conceived today, thanks to thumb-sucking, Playmobil, and all boys’ desire to take apart again immediately whatever they build. Our two boys are fascinated by the Playmobil Fairies series of products, and have this weekend achieved toy bliss through acquiring two mounted fairy figures, one on a spotted purple horse, the other on a […]
Read MoreLast year, I wrote 40011 words of my Broken World* novel, a project that excited (and excites) me so much I spent almost every single one of my train commutes pounding out new words for four months straight. I even entered into a three-way-duel with fellow writers Bo Balder and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz during the Clarion […]
Read MoreThis is something I’ve wanted to blog about for years. High time I got around to it. How do you know your story is ready to go out? Where do you find the publications that might buy it? What are all the things you need to think about before submitting? And many other details… The […]
Read MoreWhat to do if my on-train writing during my twice-daily 45-minute commute is frustrated by bad technology? Swiftkey, the app I embraced as God’s gift to writers, may on second glance not actually have been created by a Supreme Being after all, despite being all but worshipped by Android users around the globe. At first […]
Read MoreNow I’ve done it. No escape. No excuses. No more easy weeks of seeing how many words I can manage to pound out in my daily commutes. In the six weeks the Clarion West Workshop runs this year, from 23 June through 2 August, I’m participating in their Write-A-Thon, and committed to write 21600 new […]
Read MoreOr… why writing is like using a muscle.* Our youngest, though approaching two years of age, still believes in at least one, preferable two bottles a night. (Bear with me for a moment. This really is a post about writing.**) Three, if he can get them. Add teething to the mix and our nights are […]
Read More