The Most Terrifying Thing of All….
The missus and I were lying in bed the other day, watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead--the one featuring Beth in the hospital. (To any of you who...
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Fantasy Assassins Reading List
Welcome to The Ultimate Fantasy Assassins Reading List for Book Lovers If you love fantasy assassins as much as I do, you’ll probably be looking for more assassin fantasy books...
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Writing is Freaking Hard Work!
Let me make this clear: this is not a post of me complaining. It's just something I've realized in the last few months… Dorothy Parker said something wise about writing:...
Writing Mistakes: Writing a Weak Blurb
You may not realize it, but the book blurb is almost more important than the book itself! Sounds a bit counterintuitive, but the fact is that your book blurb is...
Thoughts on Life
Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. --Lou Holtz Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at...
Following Your Obsessions
Franz Kafka said, "Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions...
Writing Mistakes: Fluffy Dialogue
Your dialogue can make or break your novel--something I am learning the hard way as I work on the second draft of The Last Bucelarii Book 1: Blade of the...
The Pitfall of Being a Fantasy Writer
Patrick Rothfuss said something that pretty much sums up an issue I've been wrestling with for the last few months: “If you want to write a fantasy story with Norse...
The Second Draft
Work on The Last Bucelarii Book 1: Blade of the Destroyer is coming along swimmingly! (Check out the cover art by clicking the link...) I got all of the comments...
Writing Mistakes: Clichés
Clichés--you can't help but hate them every time you see them! Here's a list of some of the more common clichés: In a nutshell. At long last. Going forward. All...
The Story Really Doesn't Matter
I've been making a pretty intriguing mistake with my writing up until fairly recently: I tried to tell an interesting story. That may sound silly, but hear me out… In...
What Really Gets to You?
I find it highly fascinating how something that doesn't affect you AT ALL one day can move you so deeply the next. Here's what I mean: The other day, I...
Writing Mistakes: Repeated Words/Phrases
This is a problem I didn’t know I had until I got my latest book back from a particularly awesome beta reader. Her note went along these lines: "Great story,...
What Emotion Do You Fear Most?
Laurie Halse Anderson said, “Write about the emotions you fear the most.” That's a tough nut to swallow! We all have those shadowy corners of our minds that we want...
Can You Really Write Without Having Lived?
The other day, the wife and I were talking about the challenges of being a writer, and she said something interesting to me. I've been struggling with adding more depth...
Writing Mistakes: Not Doing Enough Research
They say to "write what you know", but when it comes to writing fiction, what you know simply isn't enough! When I write, I like to sort of write from...
How the Rock Rolls…
I stumbled across this quote the other day while lost in the mires of the Internet: "A rock must roll many times to become perfectly round.” I don't know who...