Category: General

Author Interview Series #5 – Edward Lee

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on Travis

As a kid, I had always had a love of the horror genre, be it movies, comics, or films, but it had lain dormant for a long, long time. I first heard of Edward Lee when I sensed a reawakening of my interest in horror, so I asked a friend (who is a HUGE horror geek) who she would recommend, and she recommended Joe Lansdale (whose interview you can find below), and she also mentioned Edward Lee, but then added (and I’m paraphrasing), “But only read Ed Lee if you’re really twisted.” That sounded like a throw-down to me, soContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #5 – Edward Lee

Author Interview Series #4 – Richard Dansky

Cat Links Author Interviews, Culture, General, Writing Posted on Travis

I first became aware of the name of Richard Dansky way back when I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade. His name was on a fair number of those supplement books that every gamer just has to have. Since those days, he’s moved on to other venues, but stayed primarily within the game industry. Writing for video games is generally more lucrative than writing for tabletop pen-and-paper games, just in case you potential writers out there didn’t know. However, I’m finding that there are a lot of writers out there who got their first paying gigs writing for roleplaying and/or videoContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #4 – Richard Dansky

Author Interview Series #3 – Nalini Singh

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on Travis

No one would think, upon meeting this quiet, smiley woman from New Zealand, that she would have such a romantic geek streak. But as evidenced by the success of her romance fiction, and the burgeoning success of her sci-fi/paranormal romance fiction, it must be true. Also true is that she’s not alone. With ten books under her belt, she’s built an impressive audience, making both the USA Today and NYT bestseller lists. As the publishing industry has discovered, there are large numbers of readers who want to read romance stories set in a non-mainstream universe. (By the way, far beContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #3 – Nalini Singh

Author Interview Series #2 – Rich Wulf

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on Travis

This week’s installment in my author interview series brings us Rich Wulf. Rich is best known as being the long-time story scribe of Legend of the Five Rings, a collectible card game, roleplaying game, and fiction property that has been going strong since 1995. He has since passed the L5R writing duties to Shawn Carman, who might find his way into this interview series in coming months. These days Rich writes mostly for Wizards of the Coast in their Eberron series of novels. Rich’s brain is capable of containing vast quantities of encyclopedic knowledge, and be possesses a great talentContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #2 – Rich Wulf

Author Interview Series #1 – Joe R. Lansdale

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I am tremendously pleased to post the inaugural installment of my author interview series. Joe R. Lansdale is perhaps best known as the author behind Bubba Hotep. Can I get an Elvis impersonation here? But he’s also written dozens of short stories, books, comics, and screenplays, including some of the best known novels in horror fiction, such as The Nightrunners. All that, and he’s a darn nice fella. So, let’s take o’ bidness.

Writer Interview Series – Coming Soon!

Cat Links General, Writing Posted on admin

I’m putting together a list of authors for an idea I had the other day for developing some really useful juicy material for this blog, which covers, but heretofore hasn’t focused on, the topic of writing in general. Over the coming year, I’m going to be shifting its focus, and I thought a great place to start off with that would be to interview experienced authors with some published credits and awards. My plan over the coming months is to interview a series of authors about the life and business of a writing as a career. My questions will focusContinue readingWriter Interview Series – Coming Soon!

New Publication in Cemetery Dance Magazine

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So it’s been a good day, and another milestone for my efforts at writing fiction. That is, my first short fiction publication in a print magazine. My horror short story, “That Long Black Train” will be appearing in Cemetery Dance magazine sometime in 2008, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve had a couple of sales to online journals, and I’m happy about those too, but print magazines are still where it’s at in the writing business. So all you other struggling writers out there, take heart! It can be done! For you horror and dark fantasy readers, check outContinue readingNew Publication in Cemetery Dance Magazine

Heart of the Ronin – New Novel in Spring ’09

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Since this is my blog, I am quite happy to use it to toot my own horn. It is with great satisfaction that I announce my next publication. My novel, Heart of the Ronin will be published in hardcover in Spring 2009 by Five Star Publishing. More information on this will likely appear in this ol’ Groove in the months and weeks to come, but you heard it here first! And oh, yeah, the novel in a nutshell. This will be the first novel in The Ronin Trilogy. In a nutshell, it is Excalibur meets The Seven Samurai. John BoormanContinue readingHeart of the Ronin – New Novel in Spring ’09

Flash Gordon Doesn’t Flash, Just Fizzles

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Yes, it’s been a blue moon since my last post, but that‘s actually a good thing for me, because it means I’ve been busy the last couple of months. The thing that‘s been on my mind lately is how horribly the Sci-Fi Channel has not only failed, but soiled, one of the great icons of science fiction. As a kid, I lived for the Flash Gordon animated series on Saturday morning. When the most recent movie came out in 1980, I had that Queen soundtrack and actually wore out the cassette. I spent countless hours drawing Flash Gordon rocket shipsContinue readingFlash Gordon Doesn’t Flash, Just Fizzles

Adventures in Microsoft Customer Service

Cat Links Culture, General Posted on Travis

So it’s been far too long since my previous post, but keeping up with the anti-Microsoft sentiment in my previous cautionary tale, here’s an addendum to the way things turned out with my Vista installation. All the horror and angst of those experiences were riding high when I was going through trying to install a new PC game on my Vista machine. Battlefield 2142 is a high-end first-person-shooter. For Windows XP. I installed the game. It ran for about five hours. Then I shut the computer down, went away for a while, and tried to play again when I cameContinue readingAdventures in Microsoft Customer Service

The Lovely Farce That Is Windows Vista

Cat Links Culture, General Posted on Travis

I’ve nursed a simmering distrust of Microsoft for many years, ever since hearing about the rank hubris and contempt that they displayed toward the Federal government’s antitrust lawsuit not so many years ago. I had dinner one night with a tech-head who was closely involved with the case, and the stories he told about the way Microsoft destroyed evidence, stonewalled, played games, and in general made a mockery of the whole proceedings still sticks in my craw, even though, sadly, most of the details are fading into the fog of my aging memory. But I use their products. And forContinue readingThe Lovely Farce That Is Windows Vista

How NOT to suck as a Fiction Writer – Or, Basic Lies 101

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I’ve had the good fortune recently to be doing some submission reviews for The Harrow, an online horror fiction journal. My task is to review and critique manuscripts submitted for publication. I’m also a member of Critters.org, a website where SF/F and Horror writers can have their works reviewed and critiqued by their peers. I must say, it’s a great experience on many levels to read the work of struggling writers out there, not to mention having my own stuff critiqued on Critters. I’m good, but I’m not Ray Bradbury or Harlan Ellison. Give me another 35 years. Maybe somedayContinue readingHow NOT to suck as a Fiction Writer – Or, Basic Lies 101