Blog
playing with quotes
I may be the most competently incompetent social media person around. I have Tumblr. I have Twitter. I have Facebook. I have Goodreads. and now I have Instagram. When promoting myself in these spaces, I spent most of my time talking about my books instead of (I guess?) posting pictures loosely pertaining to them. I…
Read MoreThe question I never asked
I had this idea last summer, for a new thing. It was a cool idea, and I liked it, so I did something about it: I wrote the thing. Then, when I was done with it, I edited the thing, edited it again, edited it one more time, and then I commissioned a cover and told…
Read MoreNarcos, narrative non-fiction, and what big publishing still does well
I had plans a few weekends ago that involved my escaping the house with my wife to run off to a hotel room in another state and… get a lot of writing done. This sounds a tiny bit less crazy once you understand that she was on a business trip and I was just along for…
Read MorePlease Stop
Note: this is the first article I wrote for the Huffington Post to receive widespread attention. It’s a tiny bit dated—my perspective on Amazon has evolved somewhat, and the Hachette dispute is over—but I’m re-posting it so it has a home on my new site. I do believe the widespread attention I originally received is…
Read MoreA short discussion of the immediate future
This is going to be a weird year. I’m going to call 2016 a repositioning year for me, which is better than saying I’m not 100% sure yet when I’ll have something new out. I put out a lot of stuff last year: Regency Immortal, Immortal Stories: Eve, the Immortal Chronicles anthology, and The Spaceship Next Door. That…
Read MoreTell me I'm pretty
Sometimes we just want someone to tell us we’re pretty. That’s the conclusion I’ve drawn after many conversations with different authors over the years regarding whether or not to self-publish. I’m talking about authors writing genre fiction, either with existing fan-bases (from fanfic or their indie books) or just starting from scratch. These are the…
Read MoreIntroducing Bad Advice for Writers!
Note: This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. Over the coming months I will be reposting certain pieces here, on my own site, because HuffPo already gets enough traffic. My apologies if you’ve read this before, unless you didn’t know I wrote it, in which case: I did! Tell your friends. Greetings from…
Read MoreThe NOOK's weird death-march
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Barnes & Noble has become that relative we all talk about as if they’re already dead, even when they’re right in the room with us, and they don’t even mind because at least we’re talking about them. I say this knowing all too well that people have been…
Read MoreThe collective insanity of the publishing industry
Unless you’re a writer, I imagine you haven’t been paying quite as close attention to the publishing industry and all its weirdness as I have, and that’s a shame, because it’s been really entertaining. Actually, entertaining isn’t the right word. It’s been insane, but the kind of insane that’s unreasonably fun to watch from a safe remove.…
Read MoreThe vegan cookbooks on the shelf
I’m sorry. I’m going to talk about losing weight and also not gaining weight, and trying to eat healthier, and what that even means, and also, I will be discussing vegan foods. Yes, I am apologizing for the last thing. I received two vegan cookbooks for Christmas, from my daughter, who thought it would be…
Read More