writing

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POV: Writing is Hard

by
Scott

Hey all… Writing is what I love more than almost anything else in the world (except maybe Mark, Mom and Dad, and Oreos). But sometimes, being a writer is soul-crushingly hard. I’m not talking about the writing itself. Writing can make me crazy, sure. There are times when the words just don’t come, and times when you just can’t sit down to write. And times (usually at the three quarters point of the story) when you decide everything you write is shit. But that’s par for the course. What I’m talking about today is getting your work out there, and … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Switching Gears

by
Shifting Gears - pixabay

Hey all, For the last three years, I’ve been deep in the weeds of writing not one but two sci fi trilogies – “The Oberon Cycle” (Skythane, Lander, Ithani) and “Liminal Sky” (The Stark Divide, The Rising Tide, and The Shoreless Sea). I love-love-love sci fi, but even as a reader, I would take breaks, often alternating between sci fi and fantasy to cleanse my reading palette. And so it is with my writing. Two months ago, about two-thirds through “The Shoreless Sea,” I took a break – well, not so much took a break as a double-time – writing … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Suck A Little Happy Juice

by
scott - happy juice

Hey all, It’s an amazing time in my writerly life. I’m starting to get some local press for “The River City Chronicles” (ok, so I begged and pleaded, but hey, whatever it takes, right?) – and I will do my first official bookstore reading and signing on October 4th at Time Tested Books in midtown Sacramento. (hint hint hint) You can sign up to go here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1180415018767294/ If you are in the Sacramento area, please sign up. I need to show the bookstore I have local support, so they will ask me back again. 🙂 At the same time, I … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: What’s Next?

by
blank page - pixabay

Hey all, As I work to finish the final book in the Liminal Sky series, I’ve been giving some thought to the question in today’s title – what’s next for me as a writer? I’ve done far more than I ever thought possible in this whole writing and publishing thing: Sold more than 20 stories (shorts, novellas and novels). Written not one but two series, to critical acclaim (and am wrapping up the last book now) Had a few certified Amazon bestsellers (albeit in smaller categories) Published my own works In the four years since I published my first short … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The Roller Coaster and the Inner Critic

by
critic - pixabay

Hey all, As anyone who knows me or follows this column knows, it’s been a wild month. It was just about a month ago that we discovered how much GDPR (the new EU privacy law) would require of us as a company, and how little time (3 weeks!!!) we had to accomplish it. It also landed squarely in the lead-up to the release of “The River City Chronicles,” my first self-published work. It also happened to be the month when I was due to finish writing Ithani, and one of my beta readers threw me a (much needed) curve ball … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Punch Drunk and Slap Happy

by
Sleepy Scott

I have to admit, I approached the prospect of writing today’s column with a bit of trepidation. It’s almost never a good idea to write sleepy. I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon and evening prepping my first book for self publication – “The River City Chronicles” should come out in about a month or so, date to be announced soon. Then I spent the rest of the night in bed obsessing over what I still had to do. You see, I have this condition called writer’s’s brain. In the clear morning light, it’s obvious that most of the stuff I … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The Holy Sh!t Moment

by
Scott - Holy Sh!t Moment

Every novelist works a little differently. Some write books by the seat of their pants, riding the crazy writing train to wherever it takes them. Others make meticulous outlines before ever putting a word on the page, and know exactly where they’re going and how they will get there. I suspect that most of us are somewhere in the middle. Icertainly am. I start with a loose outline. I know how the plot will lay out, generally, and the steps along the way. But I also allow for that rarest of beasts – the “Holy Sh!t Moment (HSM).” It’s the … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: After the Fall

by
hope - pixabay

Anyone who read my column last week knows how devastated I was to find out someone I used to be close to had been killed eight years ago, and I’d only just found out last week. I’ve spent the last week and a half processing this. I’m a writer – that’s what we do. Now I am starting to emerge on the far side. I want to thank my friends and family for rallying around me, and I want to acknowledge the pain of those who were much closer to Damon than I, and who lost so much more with … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: When Will It Click?

by
trend - pixabay

Hey all I’ve now been back to writing seriously for about four years. In that time, I’ve gone from zero things published to sixteen published works – including two novels launching two separate sci fi series, and I just sold the sequel to the first one. I’m about to wrap up my online serial, “The River City Chronicles,” which I plan to release in book form in both English and Italian. And I have a bunch of other irons in the fire, including my second sequel and a group serial project. So when is it going to happen for me? … Read more