click here to see more about the book on the Benbella website Recently the editors for Benbella’s Smart Pop line of essays about cultural pop topics published their pick of favorite essays. Editor Leah Wilson picked my essay as one of her top three. This was for my essay: Dating the Monsters in the book Ardeur,…
Hey folks, a guest blog from fellow writer Benjamin Tate, whose new book is about to hit the shelves. In it he discusses, among other things, one of my favorite Writing Tips: how all stories need two ideas before they come alive. click on the picture to see the book at Banres & Nobles.com Thanks for having…
Our friend Evil Dave is visiting. (He’s not really evil. Actually, he’s very nice. But that’s what people call him.) From time to time, he jokingly runs a roleplaying game called "the Rolling Down a Hill Game" where one’s character rolls down a hill. That’s all that ever happens in this particular game. Some years…
This purely decorative picture demonstrates the opposite of an active opening. Next in our series of posts expanding on my Writing Tips list, we have: Open active: Start scene changes underway and then explain how you got there…unless change significant. First: what do I mean by openings? In this case, I mean…
Orville returned from his first overnight camping trip with the Boy Scouts. He was gone Friday and Saturday and it was a great successs. Not as much rain as feared. I suffered a mother’s quandry in regard to this trip. My boys sleep with "friends" on their bed, favorite stuffed animals. When packing, I kept wrestling…
Last night, we were reading Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran The Circus. We had just reached the part where the knights ‘noble apes without fear’ and the following conversation ensued: Juss: "The things in this book are impossible. Whoever heard of boxing glove spears." Mommy: "Er…actually, that’s the only thing in this book tha is possible." Juss: "Oh."…
Yesterday, I went on a field trip with Orville. It was to be something Medieval. I thought it was going to be a Renaissance Faire type thing. So, you can imagine my surprise when we arrived at a mall….a mall. Driving around the mall in the school bus, we came to a castle. (Don’t believe me,…
Instead of an essay, this week, we have a photo: How cool is that? This is a picture from the Manassas, Virginia Barnes and Nobles Science Fiction/Fantasy. Look closelky at the books across the top shelf. All these books are the output of two authors. ;-)
I joined a writing group with seven other fantasy/sf writers, one of whom was a friend. Imagine my surprise when some of these ladies read Chapter One of my latest work and don’t seem to understand what is magic and what is not, think a magician asking for a sample of a solicitor’s wares is propositioning…
When I was young, there was nothing I loved more than to disappear into the world of books. I would bike down to this magical place called the library and come back with a backpack of books. Then I would curl up in my room and disappear into Wonderland. I loved all books,…