In January, I’ll be teaching a new workshop for Odyssey Online: “Riveting Descriptions: Bringing Your Story to Life in the Reader’s Mind” … here’s the course information: Level: Beginner to Intermediate Class Times: There will be three live class meetings. Thursday, January 3, 2019 Thursday, January 17, 2019 Thursday, January 31, 2019 […]
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 […]
I and other authors such as David Day, Tim Waggoner, Gary A. Braunbeck, Janet Harriett, and Sarah Hans recently formed the new Ohio chapter of the Horror Writers Association. You can find the new group online at https://ohiohwa.wordpress.com/ and on Facebook. At present, the group is holding quarterly meetings; the next will be on November 4, […]
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 launched my Patreon a little over 5 months ago, and it’s been steadily growing. Through it, my patrons receive: Monthly chats with professional authors, editors, and agents Weekly poems Weekly writing prompts Monthly short stories Monthly novel excerpts Monthly writing articles Monthly manuscript critiques I’m doing my best to provide a good value to […]
Hi everyone! If you’ve been enjoying the writing articles and reviews I’ve been posting on my website, please consider supporting me at Patreon! The goal of my Patreon is to provide my readers with great content while enabling me to focus on the kind of work I’d most like to be spending my time on: […]
What’s the most difficult part of writing a fiction story? The beginning, middle, or end? The answer to that question will vary widely depending on the writer and his or her particular fiction project. Most of us start writing a story or novel for a particular reason: we had a compelling dream, or we overheard […]
On May 6th from 11am-1pm, I’ll be leading a free writing workshop for teens and adults at the Pickerington Library in Ohio. “The Plot Thickens” is a two hour discussion on the mechanics of various plots and narrative structures and how they can be applied to fiction, games, and nonfiction. Each of my workshops includes discussion […]
The MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA is an unusual one. First and foremost is the program’s emphasis on popular rather than literary fiction. Many traditional MFA programs scorn science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, young adult literature, and romance; Seton Hill embraces these genres. Other programs may not explicitly […]
