Welcome back, everyone, to my now-annual tradition of updating my blog. For those of you who don’t know, Jan 31, 2020 marks the 7th bookiversary of...
Checking in
Meet my cat, Soria…
The life of a writer can be lonely and isolating at times. When I first started writing full-time, my wife was still working a day job. That left me...
Year 6 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan
Well, here I am, yet again. It’s time for Firehurler’s 6th birthday, marking the end of Year 6 of my 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan. I’ve made a...
Year 5 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan
Well, one of the hallmarks of my annual plan update seems to be posting it later and later every year. This year I’ve somehow made it to June with a...
Year 4 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan
So… January 31st marks the 4th bookiversary of Firehurler. I’ll have been a self-published author for four full years. At this point, I have vague...
Year 3 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan
So... January 31st marks the 3rd bookiversary of Firehurler. I'll have been a self-published author for three full years. I'd like to say the time...
Miracle on 34th Street Fan Theory
'Tis the season and I've been popping in all the Christmas classics this season. But as I was watching Miracle on 34th Street (in the original 1947...
What If More Video Games Were Text-Based
I am old enough to remember Zork—the original text-based versions before they came out with graphics-enabled editions. It was an entirely different...
Level Up Your Writing: Words Are Experience Points
Are you a good writer? Want to get better? Well, you'd better get out there and earn more XP. Whatever innate talent and ability you think you have,...
Rebranding: Cover and Title Upgrades for Black Ocean
Sometimes you reach a point where writing another book isn't going to sell more of the earlier ones. One more promotion, one more guest blog,...
So You Want to Be a Writer
With the ever-increasing ease of self-publishing, more and more people are becoming writers. Most are doing it on the side of some other occupation,...
Readers Are Rectangles; Writers Are Squares
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Take that axiom from grade-school math class and replace "squares" with...
This is Why We Have Editors
I use commas the way the B29 dropped bombs: let them loose to fall where they may, and hope they land where you want them. I can't spell names I...
Black Ocean Series Trailer
I put together a trailer for the Black Ocean series. Let me know in the comments what you think.
Mark Lawrence’s Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off!
Back at the beginning of March, fantasy author Mark Lawrence put out a call on his website for self-published fantasy authors looking for exposure....
Year 2 of My 5-10 Year Overnight Success Plan
Just like last year, I missed commemorating the late-January anniversary of my first book's release. Firehurler came out at the end of January,...
New Year’s Resolutions for 2015
The theme of this year's resolutions is "Taking My Own Advice." So, looking back on what I blogged about in 2014, what should I focus on for 2015?...
My Holiday Book Acquisitions
Well, Christmas 2014 has come and gone, and my relatives have once again piled me with books to get next year's reading started. As I continue my...
New Series, New Workflow: Scrivener Ahoy!
I've wanted to try Scrivener for ages, but I've been writing a long-running series. It felt like a bad idea to make a major change to my workflow...
Manuscript Complete! Next Project
Tinker's Justice Well, I've just wrapped up the manuscript for Tinker's Justice, the final book in the Mad Tinker Chronicles. It still needs all the...
What Being an Author Means to Me
Watching a show the other day, there was a character who had been told she had six months to live. Where was she? At work in a nice tidy office job....
Author Update: 7/2/14
Well, I missed my scheduled Tuesday blog post this week, but I'd like to think it was for a good cause. Last night I finished the manuscript for...
Secret Project Revealed
Secret Project Command has given clearance to discuss the Secret Project. As it turns out, I'm a contributor to an upcoming short story anthology,...
2014 Reading Update (May)
Back at the end of 2013 I laid out a selection of books I intended to read in 2014. Having just finished the first books (I still have the sequels...