Mixing metaphors like a fox

Well, research can be your friend, a friend that likes to drink and tell lewd stories. Turns out I guessed right in wanting to write “Bladesman” in a harboiled/noir detective style. It has all the traits of one. So I have some of the books on CD, and I’m looking for more. I hear Elmore [...]

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Novel Maps

I recently put together a Google Map for my soon to be released mystery novel – Null_Pointer. Authors use maps to help them write in many ways, from exploring cities that they have not been to, to getting a feel for where their characters are actually located in the real world.
I wrote Null_Pointer in [...]

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My Lair

One of my favorite workshops is by Elizabeth Boyle. The Superhero’s Guide to Writing Romance. She says the five steps to being a Superhero Writer is:

Learn Your Secret Identity – what you write, a.k.a. your voice
Discover Your Super Powers – your writing strengths
Build A Lair – your place to not only write but heal after [...]

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Have Laptop, Will Write Anywhere

My usual writing space is the “dinning room” table. I put that in quotes because my house has one living room/dinning room space with no walls. I sit in a hard backed chair that I can’t see TV. That way I can keep in eye contact with my wife (most times) and feel like we’re [...]

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Writing Workspace

I generally write on the MacBook in the family room when everyone is sleeping, usually that’s the early morning hours. When I get a day off from work, I may sit at the writing desk in the bedroom that looks out on the backyard. The first picture shows the bedroom desk.
I have never [...]

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Urban Fantasy

Here are the notes from the Urban Fantasy presentation I did at last month’s Boise Speculative Fiction Writers’ meeting. For those already familiar with the genre, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know, but…promise kept!
Urban Fantasy – definition
While traditional fantasy takes place in any time or place, and often in historic or [...]

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Writing in a vacuum is overrated

Writers are a driven bunch.  When the Muse is MIA, we are either pounding our heads on our keyboards, or torturing what we’ve already written with the red pen of doom.  When the Muse does show up for work, we strap in before the genie goes back into her bottle.  It’s easy for us to [...]

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Paper chasing

Questions from newly minted writers tend to come in candy flavors. There’s some difference in how the questions are asked, or the actual words used, but they all tend to boil down to some basic metaquestions.
The first one often asked by fresh novelists is, “How do I get an agent?” That one is easy [...]

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