As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Managing Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome / Mask - deposit Photos

I try to stay strong. I try to project optimism into the world, because that’s what I want to come back to me. But damn, sometime’s it’s hard. Today I am struggling with my IC – my inner critic, but rather than wallow in all the messages it’s giving me, I thought it would be better to share the ways in which I deal with it when I’m feeling like the fake-est phony who ever lived. So here are my strategies for coping with imposter syndrome, in no particular order. I hope they’re helpful to you, too: Reread Some (Good) … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The Publishing Industry

Stress - Deposit Photos

Joel Arellano asked me to talk a bit about “Dealing with the volatility of the publishing industry.” I’m going to go a step beyond that and talk about the industry in general. I love publishing. I have been a book fanatic since I was a little kid, and always wanted to be a published author. When I was in my teens, it was a lot harder. There weren’t nearly as many publishers, and the big ones had the gates locked down tight. Sure, most took open submissions back then, but that was basically an invitation to languish in the slush … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Writers Who Inspire Me

Inspiration - Deposit Photos

Fan Joel Arellano recently asked me what writers inspired me. Every author writes from a font of knowledge and a stew of weird ingredients created from a life’s worth of experience – where we grew up, how we were raised, and what we consumed over those (for me) long 52 years now. But one big piece of this is the other writers we have read. So here, in no particular order, is a non-comprehensive list of some of the writers who have inspired me, and why. Sherri S. Tepper: I first encountered Ms. Tepper’s work in the supermarket checkout line. … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Reworking/Extending an Old Story

go back - deposit photos

Today I’m answering a fan question from Joel Arellano… Which of your works would you extend or rewrite? I’ll start with the rewrite one. In general, I don’t like to go back and mess with my finished work too much. But I often do a light-to-heavy rewrite for most of my shorter work when it goes out of print and I re-release it. For instance, Homecoming, one of my earliest published works, got a “smoothing” rewrite, incorporating some of the things I’ve learned since, like not taging every utterance with “he said” and “she said,” and I also added a … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Shouting Into the Void

Shouting Into the Void - Deposit Photos

Every author reading this knows what this column will be about, just from reading the title. Well, at least every self-published author. You have done everything right. You have a website, a blog, a facebook profile (and page/group!). You’re on Twitter, the ‘gram, Slack, Zoom, Discord, and a hundred other apps you probably forgot you downloaded. You’ve writen your ass off, paid a professional editor, and have created or commissioned covers that would make the Gods weep. They ought to – they cost you enough. You have Nanowrimo’d, workshopped, critique-grouped and edited your writing to a finely honed skill, and … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Damage

Damage - deposit photos

“What’s your damage, Heather?” We all carry damage around with us in some way, shape or form, like an unwanted hitchhiker. Damage from things that were done to us as children. Damage from things we did to others. Damage from the world and society at large. I carry the damage of homophobia. Of being called a faggot and queer and a sissy, damage from the nasty looks straight guys sometimes gave me when I was a teenager. I carry the damage of shattered hopes, dreams, and expectations, and the damage of a few hundred writing rejections that feed my imposter … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Technobabble

technobabble mumbo jumbo - Yay Images

One of my friends/fans, Joel Arellano, asked me to talk a bit about technobabble in sci-fi, so here we go. Oxford defines technobablye as “incomprehensible technical jargon.” Basically, in sci-fi, it’s when a writer throws in a bunch of high-tech words to make their story sound all sciencey and shit: Jelyk pulled the thromb-whistle to spin the arkensphere up to speed. Somewhere in the guts of the Hawkthorne, the mighty raction engines powered up, ready to thrust the massive ship into hyperspace. See? I really know my technobabble. I bet you don’t even know what an arkensphere is, but now … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: I Wish I’d Known

Joel Arellano

Last week, I asked The Universe for ideas for my future columns, and The Universe, personified in one Joel Arellano on Facebook, replied: “A list of 10 Things you wish you had known before publishing your works.” I’ve been doing this writing thing semi professionally since 2014, so I should be able to come up with ten things to tell my newbie writing self, right? Here it goes: Rejections Happen. Don’t Let Them Stop You. If you give up being a writer because of rejections, you’ve lost the game. You may be an awful writer, or you might be the … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Help Me! I’m Falling!

man falling - deposit photos

Each Monday, I wake up and sit down to pen this Point of View column, and the words pour out of me, a writer in his prime, pontificating on the art of the written word, my life, and the world around me. Usually I scribble out a pithy, insightful screed that makes my readers smile and nod, or sometimes grimace and cry. Today, I got nuthin.’ On the rare occasion when such a tragedy occurs, I turn to you, dear reader, to see what you’d like me to talk about. So please tell me in the comments below what you’d … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Stanislavski-ing My Characters

man in mirror

Constantin Stanislavski came uo with a theory of acting that I’m loosely going to describe as “become the character” – a method of connecting with the personality of the person you’re playing, and learning how to think and feel like they did. It’s also known as Method Acting, and taken to its extreme, it can mean basically living as the person you are portraying. As folks who regularly read this column know (thanks to both of you!), I’m working on going deep with my characterization. Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about method actors and how they get into the heads … Read more