MUSES OF ROMA was recently in the Spotlight on DaveBrendon’s Fantasy & Sci-Fi Weblog. He asked me to write about where I got the “Big Idea” for the book. Short answer: Harry Turtledove. And the Muppets.
Read MoreMUSES OF ROMA – Prologue and Chapter 1
Now that MUSES OF ROMA (book one of my new sci-fi/alt-history series on the Roman Empire) is released into the wild, I’m free to post the Prologue and Chapter One here. If you like what you see, please check out the purchase info at the bottom of this post. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Prologue […]
Read MoreBook Review: I Am John, I Am Paul by Mark Tedesco
I Am John, I Am Paul by Mark Tedesco follows the lives of two real-life Roman soldiers in the fourth century, Ioannes (John) Fulvius Marcus Romanus and Paulus.  John and Paul form a strong bond of friendship during their days fighting on the German frontier, a bond that is never broken even when John is sent away […]
Read MoreAmWriting: Seven simple steps for writing a novel
I love books on writing. I have over three dozen on my bookshelf right now, and I’ve checked out numerous writing books from the library over the years. My writing process is a mish-mash of the techniques I’ve learned from all those books, so I in no way claim the following is original. It sits […]
Read MoreBook Review: In a Season of Dead Weather by Mark Fuller Dillon
Originally posted at the New Podler Review of Books. Grab a comfy chair by the fire, a hot drink, and a book of good horror stories.  Those rattling shutters outside?  Just the blowing snow.  Those shadows dancing in the corner?  Fire light, nothing more.  And the whispers behind your chair are your imagination. Maybe. That’s […]
Read MoreZERVAKAN – Published!
It’s been a long time coming, but my latest fantasy novel, ZERVAKAN, is now published. Â It’s a story about faith versus science: Are they mutually exclusive, or two sides of the same coin? Here’s the summary: Reason and science gave the Recindian Compact wonders like steam engines, telegraphs, and gunpowder. The world had order. It […]
Read MoreBook Review: Forged in Death by Jim Melvin
Forged in Death, the first of six books in Jim Melvin’s Death Wizard Chronicles, starts out with a scene from a claustrophobic’s nightmare – Torg, the Death-Knower and king of the Tugars, is imprisoned by the evil wizard Invictus at the bottom of a cold, dark pit bored hundreds of feet into a mountain. He […]
Read MoreCover Story
A great book cover inspires readers to ask the question the book seeks to answer. Since my design skills scream “amateur†(to put it kindly), I hired professionals to design great covers for two books I will publish in 2013. I think both designers did a fantastic job conveying the question of each book, and […]
Read MoreAmazon.com’s First Home Page
Circa 1995 (via Passive Voice).
Read MoreClassifying book readers
What’s your sign, book lover? Turns out I’m a “Chronological” with a dash of “Bookophile”: The Chronological Reader. Slow and steady wins the race, dear reader. You are the tortoise to the promiscuous reader’s distracted-at-any-turn hare. You buy a book, you read it. You buy another, you read it. Perhaps you borrow a book at […]
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