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 MoreAmWriting: Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding is the process of creating a novel’s exotic setting — its history, geography, cultures, religions, etc. For the purposes of this post, I’m referring to made-up worlds in science-fiction and fantasy novels. So which is better to create first: the world or the story? Well it’s different for every writer and every story. For […]
Read MoreWhen book bloggers hit the wall
Tobias Buckell writes about a book blogger who struggles with how to keep his reviews original after reading huge volumes of books. I write reviews for The New Podler Review of Books, so Buckell’s piece hit home for me. 1) When you get to a point where you’ve read an amazing number of books, you […]
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 MoreAmWriting: Research is writing, too!
It helps that I love all things ancient Rome; I’ve spent almost as much time researching my MUSES OF ROMA series as I have writing it. From books to web sites to pod casts to multiple viewings of the HBO series Rome (both seasons), I’ve covered a lot. Obviously I’ve barely scratched the surface of […]
Read MoreAmWriting: Three goals for my new blog series
My goal is to write a post each week about my experiences writing my current work-in-progress, the third book in my MUSES OF ROMA sci-fi/alt-history epic. Â I’m going to call this series “AmWriting,” after the popular Twitter hashtag of the same name. What do I hope to accomplish with these posts? Well… Goal #1: I […]
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 MoreRay Bradbury
I may be among the few sci-fi/fantasy writers who was never influenced by Ray Bradbury’s stories. Oh I respected his work, like most writers do, but his real influence on me came from his writer-to-writer advice. It was advice that finally helped me put a leash on my internal editor. I’ve wanted to be a […]
Read MoreDoor Jam Novels in Fantasy/Sci-fi
In a recent email conversation with fellow author David Drazul, I mentioned that I’d grown tired of large fantasy/sci-fi “door jam” novels (books so big they could prop open a heavy door) due mainly to their emphasis on minutiae world-building over fast pacing. When I think back to what I’ve read over the last year, […]
Read MoreReview for ASPECT OF PALE NIGHT
I just got a nice review of my mystery novel ASPECT OF PALE NIGHT from the Good Book Alert review site. An excerpt: Rob Steiner describes mystery ASPECT OF PALE NIGHT as having a similar voice to Stephanie Plum, which drew my interest right away. Plum is a quirky character with a lot of spice […]
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