Category: Creativity

Southeast Asian Fungal Grimdark

Ideas have been milling around for my next fantasy series and they are beginning to take form: a Southeast Asian-inspired setting, a fungal magic system and a grimdark flavor. Come along for the ride.
Stages of Study: Orientation

Beyond my interests in the practices of writing and studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I am intrigued by the stages of learning. In this post I examine orientation – the first stage.
Some days everything runs like a well-oiled machine…

Don’t be a fool like me. Back up your computer today before a catastrophic drive failure!
12 Strange Facts about Me

Here are 12 things that you might not know about me but have contributed to my imagination and writing.
Writing Advice: Grappling for Writers: Common Terms

Here’s a sneak peak of some material from my book focusing on bringing authentic grappling and wrestling arts into fiction.
Writing Advice: Fight Scenes

Collected advice on how to write fight scenes in books from Brandon Sanderson, Alex Brown and more.
Writing Advice: Starting with Story Structure

When Everything goes Boom… Earlier this year, I hit one of those dead zones in writing. I was 30,000 words into the third book in my Hounds of the North series and everything just stopped. I had taken a few days off writing and when I returned to the computer, I had lost the story.…
The Witch of the Sands: An Author’s Note

A lot of you may not know this but The Witch of the Sands, the first book in the Hounds of the North series, was actually written after Black River. In fact, I did not even start on The Witch of the Sands until two years after I began Black River and had a near…
Writing Advice: The Long Road

My writing was hitting a valley rather than a peak and I needed some writing advice. But from a martial arts training partner?
Writing Advice: The Exploding Story

Writing advice on what to do when your novel suddenly falls apart halfway through. Because mine just has.
Tracks in the Dust: My 2014 Writing Life

As we are in the final hours of 2014, I thought I’d take a bit of time to reflect on this past year of my writing life. This was a life changing year for me.
Black River Book Trailer

A book trailer for my fantasy novel Black River. Father-and-daughter made. No better way to start winter break.
From Fighting to Writing: How Competing in Martial Arts Helps in the Creative Process

The lessons I have learned in my study of martial arts, especially competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, have made me a stronger writer. Here are the 5 top lessons. Here are the top 5 lessons I have learned competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that have made me a stronger writer.
How to Read a Kindle eBook on an iPad or your Computer

Since I published my grimdark novella, The Witch of the Sands, in October, a number of people have asked how to read a Kindle formatted ebook on their iPad or computer desktop since they do not own a Kindle reading device. The good news is that you can read your new ebook on a range…
Why Every Aspiring Author Should Try NaNoWriMo

For aspiring authors, November is all about NaNoWriMo. Here are 3 reasons why authors should give this month-long writing challenge a try.
Top 4 Lessons about How to Deliver a Better Author Reading

The best part of my recent author reading was not what I delivered. It was what I learned.
How many coppers for the head of a warlock?

When two beta readers questioned how much my band of mercenaries were getting paid to kill a warlock, I knew I had to take a step back and figure out the economic system.
The 7 Deadly Sins of SciFi and Fantasy Writing Critique Groups

While I was recently listening to the Writing Excuses podcast on writing critique groups, a flood of memories came back to me from the various critique groups in which I have participated. With these memories of marked up manuscripts and lively exchanges, another set of memories have returned: the Seven Deadly Sins of critique groups.
5 Writing Books to Burn

Writing is the art of strangling distraction. Mostly what we do is sit alone at our desks and do whatever we can to not write. Some of the worst distractions to the act of writing are books on writing.
Run, stupid, run

The other night, as we were watching the latest incarnation of The Incredible Hulk, my daughter turned to me to during two major fight scenes and said, “Why don’t they just step out of the way?”