What French Women Know About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Olliver

I have a confession to make: when I was at my sister Kate’s for Christmas, I saw this book on her shelf and stole borrowed it without permission.  I finished it just yesterday, and at the risk of embarrassing myself, I’m going to review it as my second book of this year. This book presents… Continue reading What French Women Know About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Olliver

Torn between projects and some new thoughts on the creative process

So I have a confession to make: a couple of days ago, when I was in something of a rough spot with my current novel, Stars of Blood and Glory, I had this overwhelming urge to go back and revisit Star Wanderers.  In two days, I went through everything I’d written up to the point where… Continue reading Torn between projects and some new thoughts on the creative process

Climbing the 10k mountain

I recently read an amazing blog post by Rachel Aaron, in which she explains how she went from writing about 2k words per day (about what I’m doing) to routinely breaking 10k. This is something I really want to do with my own writing.  As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I need to… Continue reading Climbing the 10k mountain

Am I swamped, or am I lazy?

This post might get a little emo, so I apologize in advance. I feel like I have so much on my plate right now, and yet when I look back at what I’ve accomplished each day, I wonder if I couldn’t have been more productive.  I’m moving out of my apartment on the 21st, so… Continue reading Am I swamped, or am I lazy?

Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

After getting about 40% through Star Wanderers 1.0, I hit a wall and decided to put the project on the back burner for now.  The beginning part, which I’m hoping to shop around as a novelette, has some issues with it and those are keeping me from making any real progress in the rest of… Continue reading Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

Decisions suck, writing is awesome

Whew!  I just finished revising through almost 9k words in Desert Stars.  I’ve only got three more chapters and an epilogue to go, and man, I am so excited about this story!  I have no doubt it’s my best work yet. Of course, I might be biased. 😉 Star Wanderers is also coming along very… Continue reading Decisions suck, writing is awesome

Coming along nicely

First things first: the latest post for the Bringing Stella Home blog tour is up over at Michael Offut’s blog; you can find it here.  Michael asked me to blog about Brandon Sanderson’s English 318R class, so I recapped some of my experiences, including the best advice Brandon ever gave me.  Go check it out!… Continue reading Coming along nicely

BSH blog tour and other random updates

Just a few things to get out of the way before returning to other things: I’ve started the blog tour for Bringing Stella Home, and the first post was on my friend Kindal’s blog; you can find it here.  He asked me to blog about music and writing, so I shared some of my thoughts… Continue reading BSH blog tour and other random updates

“What was your purpose in writing this?”

Yesterday I heard back from one of my first readers for Star Wanderers, and the feedback she gave me was awesome.  You know you’ve got a good first reader when their comments make you go “aha!” and you find yourself with a host of new ideas for the story. Anyway, at one point, she asked… Continue reading “What was your purpose in writing this?”

Q3 Report, 2011

Before I move on to other, more interesting subjects, I want to take a little bit of time to review how my writing went in the past three months.  For those of you who may be new, this is something I like to do at the start of each new quarter.  Keeps me honest, I… Continue reading Q3 Report, 2011