Normally, I'm reading several different books at the same time, and the genres can range from mystery to horror to straight literary fiction. Sometimes it's like juggling bowling balls and chain saws, since the writing styles are so different.

The benefit to tackling books like The Passage by Justin Cronin at the same time I'm reading The Pillars ( Read more... )

I'm not sure how I feel about snippets.

One day I like them, and I'm happy to show them off. They're new and shiny and you know your muse is in the zone. Today's comes from the beginning of the next chapter in Sacrifices / Into Dust Descend, where the story returns to its creepy side.

Old ones within the pack knew obedience.The previous chapter ( Read more... )

I'm still making progress on the book. Not as fast as I'd like, but that always seems to be the case. That I'm still making progress is the important point. Words make me happy these days. The characters and story continue to develop. They're donning complexities like clothes worn too long. Wrinkled and comfortable, all full of textures and ( Read more... )

Today's post touches on one of the reasons I enjoy writing: I get to learn stuff ( Read more... )

One of the things I struggle with as a writer is how to handle flashbacks.

Part of my difficulty is balancing how much to show about a character's past or past events that inform who they are now as a character. New writers are told to start a story by dropping readers in medias res. Yet, writers are told to limit how much they use flashbacks, ( Read more... )

I wanted to start today's post starts with a snippet from Sacrifices / Into Dust Descend, but nothing I wrote last night or this morning was simple enough for me to extract ( Read more... )

Day 3 of 90 finds me on track with the current work-in-progress. Half of it was written longhand, as I didn't have ready access to electricity for most of Saturday. Then I spent Sunday transcribing my scribbles before knocking out new material while JFK played on AMC to provide background noise ( Read more... )

A while back, one of my friends, Elizabeth Bear, aka matociquala, started a community called Novel in 90 over on LiveJournal to help another writer get on task with a project. The goal was to write 3 pages a day for 90 days and complete ''a novel-length manuscript in a reasonable time, under real-life conditions ( Read more... )

Only one more page written, and some of the first two pages are going through revamp. I really need to lock down this story by making an outline.

It certainly helps to read that jimhines just finished the first draft of Red Hood's Revenge. My muse should feel jealous, but I've got a note posted on the cabinet above my desk at work that reads, "Get the ( Read more... )

We're hoping to go to Chicago in June for a family vacation and for a volleyball tournament. And then we're off to North Carolina for a high school graduation of one of Melissa's old students from Wines ( Read more... )