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 recollections of an office job in some sort of engineering field. It just seems like…
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 has flown and it feels like just yesterday. But really it's been the exact opposite.…
'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 black-and-white), I had an odd theory occur to me. Maybe it's too much…
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 gaming experience. You had a paragraph or two to describe your location, an inventory of disparate (often bizarre)…
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, those are just your raw stats. They indicate promise, not skill. To…
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, or one more interview isn't going to kick your books from where they are…
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, with no intention of ever taking on writing as a full-time career. But many are looking…
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Take that axiom from grade-school math class and replace "squares" with "writers" and "rectangles" with "readers." It holds just as true. There is no supplier-customer relationship that flows in a single…
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 invented. I string together sentences longer than some short stories.…
I put together a trailer for the Black Ocean series. Let me know in the comments what you think.
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. His proposal: round up 250 fantasy authors and 10 fantasy-leaning book bloggers and have a contest.…
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, 2013. It seems like forever ago. I suppose it wasn't. Perspective changes, goals shift, and if you're…
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? Keep up with writing reviews for the books I read As a…
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 quest to dip my toes in the water of every notable series I…
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 when I'd have to be converting years worth of work into a…
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 editing, cover artwork, and ebook formatting, so it's not ready to put in people's hands…
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. She wasn't changing the world or saving lives, she…
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 World-Ripper War and sent it off to the editor. Next up: working…
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, called The Dark Beyond the Door, which will hopefully be available coming came out June 1.…
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 of Mistborn to go, as well as picking up sequels…
Just a quick update on what I've been up to lately. Rebel Skyforce is still with my editor. I don't expect to have it back for revisions until sometime later this month. Right now I'm working on the manuscript for…
Everyone has their hobbies, their vices, their ways to decompress. Mine is gaming. I don't devote anywhere near the time to it that I once did, but there are still times when I like to get away for a bit…
Hi everyone! Just wanted to check in and let you all know what's been going on. I don't think I do that often enough. It's been a few weeks since Mad Tinker's Daughter came out, and I haven't been idle.…
Have you ever been close to finished with something for so long that it feels like you'll never actually be finished with it? "Almost done," you say, then work another week and say the same again. A month left in…
It's actually been a year and a month since I published my first novel on Amazon. How time flies. I'd meant to do a first-year summary of my experience, and it slipped by somehow. Instead, we'll do a baker's dozen…
