You better watch out!
“YOU BETTER WATCH OUT!” The words rang out loudly, electric and static, from the sky. People in the city looked up to see two, thirty-foot tall, blue, robots descend on pillars of flame coming from...
1000% True Things About Writing
Writing advice is a slippery topic full of pitfalls – the biggest, of course, is simply that no advice works for every person. Creativity is inherently personal, and your path to get good things will differ from my...
Once written, thrice lost
I have often been told I am not precious with my writing. There are reasons for that. Now, do understand, when I say “not precious with my writing” I don’t mean I’m careless with craft. I...
Writing: Building from short stories to novels
The other day I was talking with a friend about some writing stuff and I mentioned I used to write short stories, long before I wrote novels. And I did it for a reason. Writing shorts is what taught me how to write...
My Top Ten Albums of 2021
I like music. That may be an understatement, actually. I desperately need music. I write to it. I edit to it. I just sit and play it, work out to it, everything. I also don’t stream music. Nothing against...
Arthurian Legend – a small thought
Arthurian Legend. I mean I am not an expert, I’ve met experts so I know I ain’t one here, but I have some familiarity from being obsessed with it as a kid and from co-creating The Once and Future Queen,...
Robot Rage
(this is from an old collection of humor essays of mine called I Slept With Your Imaginary Friend and I thought I’d put it back up here because it makes me laugh) Robot Rage What the shit is up with...
A bit of Culture’s Skeleton
With Culture’s Skeleton (you can buy the book here) coming out, I thought I Would share about a thousand words of it, to, hopefully, help explain the city the novel takes place in: Mur. So here you go:...
The Convention Bag Detailed
I’ve been doing conventions for a while now, selling books. Running a con table takes a lot of stuff and a bunch of thought and so I found myself needing to prepare more and more every show. Eventually I...
Networking
So I feel the need to talk about networking. You know, just did ECCC and a lot of ppl go in about “Well it’s a great show to network at, I don’t know how to network, aaaa” and really there...
Publishing news
A few months ago my first novel in quite some time, THIS STARRY DEEP, was published. In the back of the book it had a small teaser for the sequel THE ENDLESS SKY, to come in 2017. Well that date might slip by a few...
Everyone has a secret origin.
Everyone has a secret origin. This is mine. Both my parents were in publishing. My father sold his first short story to a magazine when he was 13. This is not bragging. This is a warning. I grew up being taught how...
We all live here
You’re not good enough. Everyone around you hates you because you’re lagging behind where they are. Everyone is laughing in secret. You’re a talentless joke. Keep trying, you can’t catch up...
A start
The dragon roared as it died, shaking the ground beneath our feet. We could see the arcing lights of whatever high-born magic killed the giant lizard as they stained the sky and burnt the clouds. We just...
Do not edit
Stop it. Right now. Stop editing. Look, if you’re writing then your job is to write. That’s your only job. Because here’s the truth: Over 95% of people who try to write things never finish. This...