December 2015 – Ronin Writer

A New Paradigm for Old Time Patronage

General, Writing December 15, 2015December 2, 2015 admin

Something new has appeared in the wondrous–and sometimes helpful–oddities of the internet. A means whereby creative folks like myself can gather their most ardent fans to chip in a few bucks every time the creator does something cool. It’s a new form of crowdfunding called Patreon. I’ve been hankering for a few months to try it, but first I had to do some soul-searching, get some life-changes squared away, and move to another country two hemispheres away from my old digs in Colorado. I’ll be living in New Zealand until mid-2016. I’ve done two successful Kickstarters for the last twoContinue readingA New Paradigm for Old Time Patronage

Scenes: It Ain’t Just the Cliffhanger

Writing December 10, 2015January 8, 2016 admin

This year, the editor of my Ronin Trilogy gave me an incredible compliment: “In Spirit of the Ronin, every scene does exactly what you intend it to do.” On a day when I was dreadfully worried about whether the newly finished novel draft was any good, this came at the perfect time. I’ll quickly avert my gaze from the implication that apparently I didn’t quite hit that mark every time in previous books. Chalk it up to the learning process. A lot of know-how about writing scenes is packed into this one sentence, and it comes in levels and/or numberContinue readingScenes: It Ain’t Just the Cliffhanger