Trope Tuesday: Curiosity is a Crapshoot

Is curiosity a bad thing?  Well, it depends how genre savvy you are.  It seemed to work out pretty well for Alice, but not quite so well for Pandora (or the rest of the ancient Greek world, for that matter).  Curious monkeys seem to come out all right, and their constantly curious counterparts also seem… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Curiosity is a Crapshoot

Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin

I was thinking today about George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and the fact that I’ve more or less given up on the series after reading the first book.  A lot of my friends are rabid-at-the-mouth crazy about it, both the books and the TV miniseries, but I’m just not all that into it.… Continue reading Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin

Do you like your chapters named or numbered?

There’s an interesting article linked on The Passive Voice blog about the importance of a table of contents, especially in ebooks.  The article is geared mostly for non-fiction, which is a whole different beast from novels and novellas, but the discussion on TPV got me thinking: for ebooks, is it better to name chapters or… Continue reading Do you like your chapters named or numbered?

Last chance to get my books 50% off on Smashwords!

Hey guys, just a heads up that tomorrow and Wednesday are the last days to get all my books 50% off on Smashwords for the annual summer sale.  Everything is under $2.50 USD, and the $.99 stuff is free!  That might seem like a pretty steep discount, but I actually earn as much from each… Continue reading Last chance to get my books 50% off on Smashwords!

SW-VI: BENEFACTOR is now out on Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo!

That’s right!  My latest book, Star Wanderers: Benefactor (Part VI) is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo!  It’s $2.99, but for the next couple of days until the end of June, you can get it for $1.49 from Smashwords with the summer promotion code. This one took a long time to write, especially for… Continue reading SW-VI: BENEFACTOR is now out on Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo!

Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

Want a fast and easy way to show that your characters are smart?  Not bookish, necessarily, or nerdy, or even the designated smart guy in the five-man band, but intellectually adept no matter what else their role in the story?  Well, you could indicate that through inordinate loquaciousness, but too much of that tends to… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

When something you’ve written moves you

So I had an interesting experience today as I was revising Star Wanderers: Benefactor (Part VI), and I’m not sure how to describe it without sounding like “that guy” who gushes far too much about his books.  At the risk of being “that guy,” here goes. As writers, it’s far too easy for us to… Continue reading When something you’ve written moves you

Trope Tuesday: Knight Templar

For this one, I’m going to pull the description straight from tvtropes itself, since the whole page is pretty good: Sometimes, the Forces of Light and Goodness get too hardcore. In a deadly combination of Well-Intentioned Extremist, The Fundamentalist and, generally speaking, not so different, they get blinded by themselves and their ideals, and this… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Knight Templar