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Back from the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference
Yesterday (February 23), I attended my first Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, held at Chesapeake College. I attended the following presentations: Inside a Story: Writing for Children of All Ages, by...
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31 things no one tells you about self-publishing
Though I have no regrets about self-publishing my debut novel, Dragontamer’s Daughters, there are several things I wish I had known beforehand. It would have saved me time, effort, money, and...
View Articledone with twitter before i really got started…
…and other writing news, iffn you’re so inclined to lend an eye to reading about it. ITEM: At the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference last month, I attended a very informative seminar done by Mindie...
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Back from Germany, and various writerly items….
I spent the last two weeks (or so) in Germany, visiting with family and sightseeing. I went over with my wife and younger daughter, Ally Jane, to meet up on spring break with our older daughter, Beth,...
View Articlewhose culture is it, anyway?
So Selena Gomez, whom I’m familiar with thanks to my younger daughter, has honked off some people by wearing bindi during a performance at the latest MTV movie awards. The comments quoted in the...
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along came a whiner: james patterson wants the feds to bail out books
Recently, mega-author James Patterson took out an ad in the New York Times Book Review asking for the government to bail out libraries and the book publishing/selling industry. If Patterson’s name...
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sci-fi or fantasy? how about sci-fi AND fantasy?
There’s a long (but well-worth reading) post on the blog of sci-fi writer John C. Wright wherein Wright tackles the age-old question of what differentiates science fiction from fantasy. It’s a thorny...
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survivors #1: the empty city is dog poo
Knowing that I was working on a young adult novel about dogs who survive a horrific event and learn to live on their own, my daughter Ally Jane brought me home a copy of Survivors #1: The Empty City, a...
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last week’s highs and lows of being a budding author
Last Tuesday, I was invited to attend “Career Day” at my younger daughter’s middle school, where parents would come in and spend about a half hour presenting to, and taking questions from, the kids on...
View Articlenot going “under the dome”
Stephen King’s books are like KISS records: loud, not very smart, but occasionally fun. Also, the best ones were done 35 years ago. So no, I did not watch the premiere of Under the Dome last night,...
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“no way” to the sfwa
Casual fans of sci-fi and fantasy might not be aware of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, a group founded in 1965 to promote the interests (primarily financial) of writers in the...
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the importance of world-building
One of the obligations (and considerable joys) of writing fantasy and science-fiction is the task of “world-building.” That is, the creation (or “sub-creation“, as J.R.R. Tolkien called it) of a...
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teacher appreciation: verlyn flieger
In honor of the kids going back to school, this will be the first of several posts about the great teachers I was fortunate enough to have in my academic career. To kick things off, let me tell you...
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thug notes: a new take on old books
(hat tip to Mary Robinette Kowal) When I was in high school and college, I sometimes found it difficult to appreciate certain classics. Great Expectations did nothing for me; likewise for Crime and...
View Articlelearning social media, and upcoming events
For the past few months, I’ve been getting together with Brent Lewis and some fellow writers to research and teach each other about social media: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. We’ve been meeting...
View Articlelearning from “tropes vs. women”
I swear, I’m forever behind the curve on pop culture things. I only realized how awesome Led Zeppelin was after they’d broken up. I only saw maybe one or two episodes each of Cheers, Friends, and...
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my dog: the paradox
Iffn you like dogs (as I do) and you’ve owned or lived with a dog for a number of years (as I have), then you must stop everything you are doing and go RIGHT NOW to read Matthew Inman’s webcomic My...
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dogs can see colors
Like a lot of people, I imagine, I learned a lot of “facts” about dogs early on in life and never questioned most of them. Until lately, that is. As I’ve been writing Lost Dogs, I’ve done a fair...
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“lost dogs” on kent island
One of the things I’m enjoying about writing Lost Dogs, my work-in-progress sci-fi novel, is that it’s set on Kent Island, MD, where I live: actually, a good chunk of it takes place in my neighborhood....
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teacher appreciation: j.r. salamanca
The latest in a series recognizing the best teachers I had I was stunned and saddened to learn that on October 30 of this year, just a few weeks ago, the great J.R. Salamanca passed away peacefully...
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