My friend A. Catherine Noon asks: What do you want to change when we come out of lockdown, and what do you want to leave behind? What do you want to make (assuming you had energy and no stress)? (Make includes write.) Wow, that’s a big question. Some of my answers come easily – like … Read more
I’m trying something new. Anyone who knows me knows I am insanely busy, all the time. Mark and I run about twelve websites, plus I’m both a writer AND a human who occasionally needs to eat and sleep. In the past, I would write when Mark went to the gym, usually between 12 and 1:30 … Read more
I’m writing again, and it feels really good. 🙂 But I’m doing it a little differently this time. I’m working over my first three chapters multiple times before moving ahead, making sure that I have three things settled in my head: The thrust of the plot The interdynamics of the characters The major and minor … Read more
I’ve always said when you stop growing as a writer, your writing dies. We’re like sharks, swimming and swimming to keep that oxygen pumping through our blood. A few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and sold my first story, I was on top of the world. I felt like I had finally … Read more
Another week in lockdown. Although California didn’t order a statewide “shelter in place” order until late last week and Sacramento’s was only a few days before, Mark have been staying home (with only trips out for walks and one trip to the Supermarket parking lot) for eleven days now. We are starting to settle into … Read more
We’re on the cusp of great change. You can feel it in your bones. The old world order is rattling around like a bunch of dry bones in a box, and the world itself is splitting at the seams. In my own little writing world, things are being remade anew too. And in both, no … Read more
So it’s a new week, and a new direction. Regular readers of this column (thanks Mom and the other two of you!) will know I’ve been struggling with my direction as an author since I finished my two trilogies, Liminal Sky and The Oberon Cycle. I have a completed manuscript for Dropnauts – book four … Read more
I’m struggling this year. Struggling in my work life and as an author. So many things have gone pear-shaped these last few months, and it’s all left me in a strange no-man’s land, not quite sure where to go next. In my writing life, I finished two trilogies, and wrote a new novel with the … Read more
May you live in interesting times. It’s an old, oft-quoted curse (though probably NOT of Chnese origin) that turns something good on its head and makes it something decidedly bad. And one that seems particularly apt for our own time. We’re hurtling headlong into the future with many of the things sci fi always promised … Read more
As any of y’all know who read this column regularly, I have been on a bit of a sabbatical from writing since I didn’t manage to even get a manuscript request in the Pitch Wars mentoring contest. One thing about this whole author gig – it keeps you humble. That, combined with a new website … Read more