Brian over at The New Author blog got me curious... if you could describe your writing in one word, what word would that be?

Mine is organic. Tell me yours. Come on, don't be shy. We're all heroes here.


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A nice romp through my older files today produced this little beauty: a personal seal I generated while my pen was mired deep in the battles of Fantasy Novel #1. This Latin phrase was used by the Romans to describe the aftermath of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. I used it to describe the evil scourge of my alternate Earth finally getting ( Read more... )

(Fiction focus group mates, do not read! Especially you, Jennie-you may find this a bit of story spoilage. Oh, all right, Darrell, go ahead because I know you’re going to read it anyway with your rebellious self. :-)

Let’s say I need a vast, wet hiding place in an urban setting for a ridiculously massive villain.

And, after spending the better part ( Read more... )

For the longest time, I've been hearing that vamps are so DONE. Personally, I must agree. Don't get me wrong--I have nothing against vampires; when crafted well, they are intriguing and exciting, and I like them. But for the love of Cleopatra, books and movies and television have shoved them so far down my throat that it would be fine if I never ( Read more... )

I've been on a writing jag this week, y'all. You know how that goes, right? Total submersion without the benefit of food, water, or toilet until your body screams Uncle, because the story won't get off of you? Fingers worn down to stumps? Your own maniacle laughter echoing in your ears? Uh-huh. I knew that you would ( Read more... )

Well, I pulled an all-nighter in the writing department--nothing new for me. I just couldn't stop plotting and scheming and pissing my characters off (it's their own fault--I didn't make them do anything). About thirty minutes ago, I finally ran out of steam. To avoid going to sleep on a full brain--which is just as detrimental as going on a ( Read more... )

You know the bell I'm talking about. The one you hear right out of the blue when something in your story (a subplot, a motivation, a point of view, action or reaction) suddenly feels WONKY. Oh, you try to ignore it, especially when you're over three-quarters in, the same way you pull over and ignore an emergency vehicle coming up behind you when ( Read more... )

Unless you're watching a movie with limited or NO commercial breaks, late night TV viewing has become a double-dog pain in the crotch. I mean, really. Can we not worry about ye ole flag pole for five minutes? Can we? Believe it or not, sometimes just having great conversation with a guy is really nice.  Or just sharing the same space.  You don' ( Read more... )

In the early stages of researching for Dark Paranormal WIP, which is partially set in a real location (where I live), I had to check out the local trees. So I put into a search engine (I believe it was Ask.com): how tall are the trees on Vinings Mountain?

The related searches suggested to me were as follows, in order ( Read more... )

I've been quiet because I've been deep in the throes of one of my infamous Writing Jags, friends. When it descends, I can do little else but write, occasionally eat, occasionally sleep, write, occasionally pee, occasionally bathe, write, you get the drift. Even when I'm not writing, only with great concentration can I pay attention to things ( Read more... )