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 big year for me. Not so much in what I achieved but in the shift of what I wanted to be. Following the Traditional Path Late into last year and early into 2014, I was riding the euphoria of getting my story Jiro published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. Bolstered by … [Read more...]
Why Every Aspiring Author Should Try NaNoWriMo
November is a busy month. From getting ready for Thanksgiving to growing a mustache for charity. For aspiring authors, November is all about NaNoWriMo. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Founded in 1999, NaNoWriMo challenges people to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. NaNoWriMo is expecting 400,000 participants from 6 … [Read more...]
The Witch of the Sands Released
Folks, I am pleased to announce the release of my novella The Witch of the Sands, the first book in my grimdark fantasy series The Hounds of the North. The Witch of the Sands is available on Amazon. Summary Shield Scyldmund captured his prize: the bloody head of a desert chieftain. But despite the promise of desperately needed coins, the aging swordsman is disturbed. After two decades of … [Read more...]
Novellas Versus Novels: What a Difference a Few Words Make
One of the wonderful aspects of being an author chasing down the self-publishing route is that I am not constrained by the rules of traditional publishing. This means I can release stories on my own timeline and sooner than I could through traditional means. I can decide on what cover I want for each book. I also get to experiment with pricing to be able to get books into the hands of the most … [Read more...]
Trying to decide on a cover
I have finished the rough draft of The Witch of the Sands which is the first book in the Hounds of the North series. And now in between waiting for feedback from my critique group and early readers and plotting out the third book in the series, I am playing with some possible covers. Which of these covers do you like better? I am still debating whether I should invest in a professional cover … [Read more...]
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. A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -Thomas Mann We make a sandwich at the slightest hint of hunger. We let a web search for the correct spelling of a word turn into a journey into the natural history of Eurasian … [Read more...]