Month: February 2015

  • My free 3-day writing mini-workshop and Think Sideways

    I have to close registration to my flagship writing course, How To Think Sideways, for about a year, because we’re building a new site, and I need to make sure all the subscriptions are wrapped up before we move everyone’s accounts. So I’ve decided to wrap up HTTS on the current site with a bang.…

  • The REVISED new LONGVIEW covers, and how to run a solvent self-pub business

    Book covers…GOOD book covers, anyway—are a big flying pain in the ass on a good day, and they are so very much easier to get wrong than right. And blithe comments about hiring a professional cover designer don’t help. A BIG DIGRESSION ON THE FINANCIAL END OF SELF-PUBLISHING, AND HOW YOU STAY SOLVENT The Longview…

  • The New Covers for Tales from The Longview… I listened.

    I read every comment, made notes, came up with alternate concepts, and here are the three final results. WITH new titles, too.     So…does this fix the many problems? Download as PDFPrint Page

  • HTWAS Lesson, Longview Minecraft Map Update, More

    Got 3300+ words on HTWAS Module 3, Lesson 2 yesterday. This lesson, titled Breaking Things Mid-Story and Mid-Series, covers GOOD breaks—places where your Muse kicks in with an absolutely awesome idea that requires a lot of fixing in the current episode, but that DOES NOT BREAK YOUR SERIES. Being able to tell the difference between…

  • Some Indie-Pubbing Goodness For You

    I got my introduction to a site called Indie Plot Twist via this well-done article on Indie vs. Traditional Publishing. It’s a nicely done, relatively new site that’s worth your time. And I yearn for their coffee. Go visit, see for yourself, and tell Danielle and Carrie “Hi!” Download as PDFPrint Page

  • Bashtyk Nokyd—Possible Cover Art. Your input?

    I like this cover better than either of the previous ones I’ve done for the Longview series, and am considering doing the other two over again to match this style and formatting. What do you think? Previous two covers are below for comparison. Download as PDFPrint Page

  • Type-In DONE on Bashtyk Nokyd

    Right up to the last minute, the story kept punching me—I kept finding better ways to do things. I got an absolutely unanticipated but just-right ending to the episode. And added damn near 10,000 words in the process. But I’m done, I love it, the printer is humming merrily away, and I’m going to hand…

  • Cadence Drake in Real Life: Now legal, soon possible. I win! šŸ˜€

    The main character of my current novel series, Cadence Drake, was a genetically engineered child. One mother, three fathers, and some slicing and dicing of her chromosomes to give her the exact characteristics her mother wanted for her: From my mother I have my coffee-with-a- touch-of-cream skin and full lips and straight teeth. From one…

  • The Grueling Revision Of Penitence and Disbelief

    Where revision is concerned, making theĀ assumption that you have the process of knocking out an upcoming revision well in hand before you start in is an act of hubris that will be punished by the Manuscript God. This I know, forĀ I have walked through the Valley of What-The-FUCK-Was-I-Thinking many and many a time before, and…