Month: January 2016

  • My reading plan for this year: read more “widely”

    The biggest pet peeve I have with myself is how I don’t read widely enough. What I mean is, I don’t read across genres. I stick to the same kinds of books. At the end of each year, I look at the list of books I’ve read and I realize it’s two-thirds speculative fiction: science…

  • Fiction Writing Workshop: Action Scenes

    He extends his sword and then utters these words: “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” The most memorable part of this fight scene are these words. But why? To find the answer, I wanted to know more about writing effective fight and action scenes. My novel has several of…

  • Support Self-Published Writers and Small Publishing Houses

    As I plan my reading list for 2016, I want to include several self-published writers and small, independent publishing companies. So far I plan to read the following: Storming: A Dieselpunk Adventure by K.M. Weiland Read her novel Dreamlander last year and loved it. She also has great books for fiction writers and a blog…

  • The Final Quarter

    I am down to the last 25% of the current draft of my novel which I’m now calling Ziggurat Reach. Whether that is a working title or a final title, I don’t know. I know what is happening in the last part of my novel. I am building up to the story’s climax and all…