Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.

It’s been said everyone has at least one book in them. Perhaps this is an overstatement, but I would venture to guess that most people have wondered at one time or another if they had it within them to write the Great American Novel. The unfortunate truth is that for ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


Today’s regularly scheduled programming of Grasping for the Wind has been hijacked for “Vampire Barbies” with moi! - Rachel from Bitten by Books, the Paranormal Fiction Review Site With Bite! (CHOMP)

Some of you may be wondering what the heck a book review blogger of ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


Hannibal Lector. Scarlet O’Hara. Elric of Melnibone. The Bloody Nine.

What goes into creating a great character in fiction? Where does the core concept come from, and how does an author use that concept to tell his story?

I have a piece of paper hanging beside the ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


As a writer of dystopian fiction of a somewhat liberal bent, I have recently begun to feel very alone. My novel’s inspired by conspiracy theory, demented government, and dystopia - which suddenly have become the avenue of the right. Alex Jones, head honcho conspiracy ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


Let’s make no bones about it: publishing is undergoing a massive upheaval, certainly the biggest in my twenty-plus years of professional involvement. Bookstore chains are closing or drastically re-visioning; publishers are being forced to reassess what it is that they ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


Tasted any good books lately?

BookTasting is my favorite way to merge my two highest passions: books and tea. After all, what is better than reading, except reading along with an ideal cuppa? That’s what BookTasting is all about: finding the perfect tea companion to ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


Writers use words to categorize things - quippy phrases that catch the ear, and tickle the mind. It’s in our nature. My friends and I talk frequently about the tools we use to improve as writers. My buddy, Jay Lake, has a phrase I like -”Psychotic Persistence”. I’m ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


I never set out to write science fiction, but a funny thing happened on the way to writing Light Bringer, which was conceived as a thriller debunking UFO myths. I was reading everything I could get my hands on about UFOs and UFO technology, when I came across Zecharia ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


There are a lot of books published every year, in a ton of genres. Lately I’ve been considering just why I gravitate to Urban Fantasy so strongly. I’m not dissing any of the other genres. I’m a big fan of everything from Lester Del Rey’s Runaway Robot, to Harry ( Read more... )

Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.


In the beginning …

Where would we, true believers of fantasy and sci-fi, be without the worlds we live in? Whether you’re talking about life on Middle Earth, Pandora, or Tatooine, each one of these wonderfully created planets help to take us away from the mundane and ( Read more... )