New Interview at Writerly Wednesday
Sally Franklin Christie’s Writerly Wednesday blog has a new interview up with yours truly about my novella “Snakes” and other writerly topics. Check it out here.
Category: General
Constravaganza
The next two weeks are going to be CrAZy. Two convention weekends back to back. I’ll be attending MileHiCon this weekend in Denver, CO and the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego over Halloween weekend. I’m seriously looking forward to both conventions. I’ll be doing a number of panels at MileHiCon, as well as reading. Friday 3:00 pm – Shifting P.O.V. Saturday 10:00 am – Superhero Movies, Assemble! Saturday 11:00 am – The ABCs of Podcasting Saturday 12:00 pm – Podcasting Workshop/Q & A Saturday 11:00 pm – Campfire Chillers – I plan on reading my story “Legs”, forthcoming in
Healing Waves – Charity Anthology for Japanese Tsunami Relief
I was heartbroken when news of the Japanese tsunami came across the U.S. airwaves, even more so when news of the radioactive catastrophe began to leak. I still have many friends in Japan and cherish my memories from when I lived there. So when I heard about an anthology where all proceeds go to tsunami, I knew I had to submit some work there. Healing Waves from Sky Warrior Books contains an experimental essay, “A Haiku Pilgrimage”, and some poetry of mine. It also contains a piece from my friend and fellow SF author, Jay Lake. So please go to
Rogues of the Black Fury – Forthcoming from E-Reads
I just breathed an enormous sigh of completion as I finished the final edit/copyedit of Rogues and sent it off to the publisher. That was a bigger job than I anticipated, especially when some conversations with the cover artist sparked a frenzy of re-mythologizing. I’m delighted to have Alan M. Clark on board as the cover artist for Rogues. He did the original cover for Heart of the Ronin, so if you know that one, you’re familiar with his work. I’m really excited to see the final product. Now it’s time to get back to creating NEW stuff (ahem, finishing
On the Road – Great Rocky Mountain Walkabout
So I just returned from a ten-day trip through the Rockies, northern plains, and Black Hills. Some might call it leaf mold, others, refilling the well, others, story fodder, but it was indeed an awesome trip. 2709 miles from start to finish. I do have stories to tell involving empty fuel tanks, wild life, breathtaking mountain scenery, thunderstorms, Indians, and fellow campers. If you ask, I shall regale you. Here’s a map of my route. Now it’s time to get back to the creative business. More podcast episodes, finish up Sword of the Ronin, and a couple of other double-secret
Rogues of the Black Fury – A new fiction podcast from yours truly
I’ve only been talking about this for a year, but I’ve finally launched my next audio fiction podcast. Now available on iTunes! It will soon be available also on Podiobooks.com, and I’ll make an announcement when that happens as well. if you want to subscribe via RSS feed, go to the podcast’s website. Rogues of the Black Fury is a military fantasy novel best described as “U.S. Navy SEALS vs. Al-Qaeda in a Renaissance-like fantasy setting.” My agent calls this book “Pure Swash.” So if you’re looking for action, muskets, high-seas adventure, you should give this one a try. And
Panels and Reading at OSFEST 4.0
This weekend, July 22-24, is the 4th Annual installment of the Omaha Science Fiction Education Society’s convention, OSFEST, and I’ll be hanging out down there all weekend. You’ll also find me in the Dealer Room at the Author Table at various times, where I’ll have books to sell. Here’s what on my agenda. Has Urban Fantasy become a serious sub-genre? – Panel, 6 p.m. Friday Reading – 12 noon, Saturday Harlan Ellison: The bad boy of SF literature? – Panel, 3 p.m. Friday Redshirts: How to kill your characters – Panel, 6 p.m. Saturday Ultimate Starship Challenge – 11 p.m.,
A Slither of “Snakes” from Damnation Books
I’m stoked to announce that my horror novella “Snakes” launches tomorrow, June 1, from Damnation Books. The publisher is running a special. Order it quickly enough and you might even get your copy for free! The pricing starts at $0.00 and increases by 25 cents for each purchase until it reaches the full cover price. So now’s the time to get your e-book copy.
First Lines Revisited
“Write a more compelling first line and I’ll read your article!” was one Facebook comment on my post about first lines. Point well taken. Could I have spruced up my first couple of lines? Certainly. Do I intend every blog post to be a fine crafted work of art and a juggernaut of intellectual persuasion? Nope. Ain’t got time. I’m too busy trying to write fiction. Nevertheless, readers did have things to say about this list. But first, here are the answers for my previous post on first lines.
Enraptured
Gee, I’m so surprised. I’m still here. According to a well-fueled media wave, the Biblical Rapture was supposed to happen at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, May 21. Jesus was supposed to come back and spirit away a few million of the most faithful and thus signal the beginning of Armageddon, which was to culminate in Doomsday on Oct. 21 this year. Hmm. Well, I’m still here, so I guess that means I’m not one of the “faithful.” That’s a big “duh,” I suppose. We’ll all have a lot more fun with those people gone. You suppose there’s going to be a
Hook ‘Em With First Lines
I picked up (semi-) random assortment of novels from my TO BE READ pile today in a little exercise of curiosity. A truism for writing fiction nowadays is that the writer must grab the reader’s attention from the beginning. If the reader (or acquisitions editor) isn’t hooked by the end of the first page, she’s likely to put the book down. So what I’ve compiled a few first lines that handful of my novels to be read. These range from new authors to old hands and heavy-hitters. So tell me which of these you find the most compelling and why.
Bin Laden is Dead, or How to Define a Decade
“It is missing the point to think that the martial art is solely in cutting a man down. It is not in cutting people down; it is in killing evil. It is the stratagem of killing the evil of one man and giving life to ten thousand.” – Yagyu Munenori, The Life Giving Sword How do you define a decade? By committing an act of far-reaching, shocking, ruthless violence. I hadn’t had such a strange mixture of surprise, relief and hope in a long time, but it was strangely mixed with things like skepticism, sadness, and trepidation. I was trolling