I covered the kind of spam I get as an author in two prior blog posts. (Though, on reflection, the last one was probably AI generated.) I thought I’d round things out with a type of spam I get rarely, but it is interesting when I see it. It’s the Read more…
This past week saw my 59th birthday, and as a present my wife got me The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin by Seabury Quinn, all five hardback volumes. Many of you might be saying “who?’ right now. I don’t blame you. Even back in the 1970s and 1980s when Read more…
Last month I posted a small tirade about a spammy book marketer who tried to engage me by first sending me a vague email about Marked, positioning it as a fan mail. In retrospect the schmuck emailing me had never actually read my book. He waited for me to answer Read more…
When I’ve commented on bookish controversies on this blog before, it usually is in regards to “authors behaving badly” be they plagiarizing or trying to game the NY Times bestseller list. But this time I don’t think the author in question had any ill intent at all. I think that Read more…
Artists are human beings. As such, a certain percentage of them will be reprehensible, or at the very least hold opinions that are reprehensible. Humans are imperfect beings, and some of them fall short of the mark. I’ve thought about this a lot in relation to two works of art Read more…
Just a short post to remind my fellow creatives to hoard your ideas. Jot down those flashes of inspiration, save those false starts. You never know when they’ll turn useful. In my own case I started writing again after a long hiatus by working on a trio of short stories, Read more…
I’ve just written a scene I’ve been avoiding for a while. I wasn’t consciously avoiding it, but after falling out of writing for a few years, it gave me some perspective on my current work in progress and I realized that the outline was missing a key scene— without it Read more…
I think every author has their go-to archetypes, and mine happens to be the outsider. Most of my characters are misfits, oddballs, or just displaced from the rest of society for one reason or another. That’s true of my most recently published book, Marked, which has Dana, who’s socially isolated Read more…
I started out as a science fiction author back with my first six novels. However, for a while now, my output has been fantasy, be it dark, humorous, or urban. It’s been over ten years since I produced my last SF with the Apotheosis Trilogy. Why? The fact is, it’s Read more…
One of the most important things you can have as a writer is a measure of humility about your craft. No matter how many years you’ve been doing this, there’s always some area to improve, something to learn. This is not to say you shouldn’t be confident about what you Read more…