What Do You Know?

My thinking on this post started way back in August, when Carrie Butler shared a comment made to her by an acquaintance. He told her, “You can’t write romance, you’ve never been in love.” There’s a thread on Absolute Write called ‘Stupid things non-writers say.” This statement belongs there (assuming the guy is a non-writer, […]

Ten Things about….Me?

Thanks to Lisa L. Regan for tagging me in this ‘Ten Things’ thing going around. You’ve done me a solid, Lisa: now I don’t have to scramble for a Monday topic, and, given my weekend, that’s a blessing. It also fits rather well with what I’m planning for Friday (and have been planning for a […]

NaNo Yes, or NaNo No?

The leaves in upstate New York are turning, the kids are back in school, and we’ve had our first frost. That can only mean one thing: NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. I first heard about NaNo two years ago. Maybe it was three. At the time I was deep, deep, deep into World of […]

The Horse Latitudes

In elementary school we saw a film about a man on a boat. For the longest time I couldn’t remember anything about the film except the guy was stuck in the horse latitudes, and there was a wacky animated sequence where he envisioned the world as a donut (wacky animated sequences were popular at the […]

Scene Setting: Time Frame

This is not a shameless plug for Time Frame, the online publication (Oops, maybe it was). No, this is about the setting of a story, and whether or not you should root your story in a particular point int time. Questions come up all the time on AW about cultural references (in fact, one fortuitously […]

Monday Musing — Charlie Brown

That about sums up how I feel today. Maybe it’s just ‘one of those days’; maybe it’s a holdover from the rather grim anniversary that passed yesterday. But, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. And when life gives you a rock, you use it to wind your piece of string around. Enjoy the […]

Inspiration and Motivation

Inspiration move me brightly – Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, Terrapin Station MOVE IT! Or I’m going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world! – Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket About a week ago someone asked on Absolute Write, ‘When you are stuck at a point in […]

And Now…

…I’m happy to break the normal Monday-Friday cycle here to note that my short story, The Intruder, has been picked up and posted on Time Frame. Please take a read and (hopefully) enjoy. Comment there or here if you are so inclined. Thanks!

Monday Musing: The Annoying Little Voice

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my writing. You have to go all the way back to August 12 for anything about me and how/what/or why I write what I do. Being an egomaniac writer, this will not do. I’ll be writing a little bit more about that sort of stuff the next […]

Product Placement…In my Book?

Remember when Archie Bunker used to call out to Edith, “Edith, bring me a beer”? A moment later, Edith would come running over with a can of…‘BEER’ that looked like this: Maybe you’re too young for that. Maybe you remember someone on TV drinking a soda in a red can with a curvy silver line […]