Writing
Universal appeal
Playwriting topically Back when I was a younger man– last week! I swear!– and getting my hands dirty in the craft of playwriting, I spent a lot of time worrying about one thing in particular: will the play I’m writing work for an audience ten years from now? Will it work for an audience fifty…
Read MoreImmortal: a detailed analysis (open discussion)
Deconstructing Immortal Today I would like to direct your eyes to– and steal some of your time with– a lengthy analysis of Immortal by author Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Jacqueline has some strong opinions about the novel, and approaches it from a different perspective. She also draws a few unusual (in my mind) conclusions. You can read…
Read MoreMerry Writer's Christmas
Riting iz easy A while ago a distant relative of mine contacted me with some questions as to how he might go about making a living as a novelist. He was not at that time a writer, but liked to read and thought it might be a good way to make a living. I didn’t…
Read MoreBlog Tour: The Literary Soundtrack interview
Interview with Gene and Adam I had a lot of fun doing this interview, with The Literary Soundtrack. First, I love talking about music, as anyone who has been locked in a car with me and my iPod can attest to. Second, Adam showed up to answer one of the questions. Stop by The Literary…
Read MorePromoting in a social media world
Leading horses to water Promoting a novel can be extremely challenging, and in ways that are different from promoting a website or a toy or a machine that goes *ping* at regular intervals. Novels are subjectively enjoyable, frequently disappointing, and an unavoidable commitment. Nobody wants to get stuck reading a bad one, or worse, having…
Read MoreOn Writing
What is a writer? I have been known to spend some time in the occasional Twitter chat with other writers to discuss/debate one subject or another, and about half the time I come out of those chats with a mild concussion from slapping my head on my desk. Why? Because writers are generally pretty smart…
Read MoreIn defense of Amazon
Outrage You have, I am sure, heard at least a portion of the story: Amazon.com allowed an e-book that instructed pedophiles on how to be better pedophiles (I’m guessing) to go on sale through their vast retail empire. When the book was discovered– and I’m sort of interested in figuring out what search parameters led…
Read MoreMary Sues and assholes
On the notion of the Mary Sue and the ubiquity of fan fiction I’m a fairly non-social writer, by which I mean when I’m working on something I’m alone with it until I’m reasonably certain it’s truly and actually done. I have not historically taken advantage of writing groups or posted partials for comment, or…
Read MoreOn genres
[Note: This article was originally posted as a guest blog at Indiependent Books. See it here. Comments welcome.] Anomaly I’d like to talk today about genres, but before I do that let me begin with one large caveat: I am very good at doing things the wrong way and getting away with it. For example,…
Read MoreMiscellany
Losing my mind I’m going to go ahead and conclude that I am not wired properly to handle a gradual book roll-out. A week ago I was completely convinced Immortal wasn’t going to debut as scheduled, which is a terrifying thought for someone who’s already gone through that once. Now I’m completely preoccupied with the…
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