Since 1999, National Novel Writing Month has happened every November. Twitter is abuzz with people who are gearing up for it now. Like most everything else, NaNoWriMo has some vocal detractors; I am certainly not one of them. I know several professional writers who have used the encouraging support system of NaNoWriMo as a way […]
This week, one of my readers asked about blind submissions and whether they’re an effective tool for editors to ensure that a magazine or anthology contains a good mix of authors and content. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a “blind” submission involves a publication stripping an author’s identity from their manuscript before an editor […]
My forthcoming collection Garden of Eldritch Delights went live on Amazon in late July. According to my publisher, pre-orders were brisk. But then, on August 8th, I noticed that Amazon had changed the book to “not available”. I contacted my publisher and they immediately logged a trouble ticket with Amazon to try to get the […]
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation: Vol. 1: The Pox Party tells the story of Octavian, a young slave boy who’s a living experiment conducted by the Novanglian College of Lucidity. Octavian’s life as an experiment began when the head of the College (Mr. Gitney) purchased Octavian’s pregnant, teenaged mother Cassiopeia at […]
I have done a bit of media tie-in work — most recently I wrote stories for Shadowrun and X-Files anthologies — but there are two shows on that I would dearly love to write fiction for (and, frustratingly, there don’t seem to be plans for any yet). The first show I’ve been avidly watching is Stranger Things. I’ve heard some […]
Last week, I added a couple of new reward levels to my Patreon: Ghostwriter $150 or more per month In addition to all my writing, prompts, and monthly chats, I will write up to 750 words of nonfiction to order per month. Need technical documentation? Business letters? Memos? Reports? Blog posts? Copy writing? Instructional materials? Essays? […]
Several years ago, I posted some advice to beginning fiction writers. I still field regular queries from aspiring writers. Lately, the questions I’ve received have fallen into three general categories. How to Keep Writing When Things Get Tough I’m a binge writer at heart, so I set aside large blocks of time to work on my stories. […]
The classic Nathaniel Hawthorne tale “Rappaccini’s Daughter” tells the story of a young man named Giovanni who moves to Padua to be a university student. Every day from his rented room, he sees a beautiful young woman named Beatrice working in a strange and lovely garden full of poisonous plants. She is the daughter of […]
The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a classic horror novella by H.P. Lovecraft. It tells the first-person story of a young man on break from college who travels to an isolated seaside New England village and discovers that it is run by a cult and most of the townsfolk are doomed to devolve into weird amphibious monstrosities […]
