Occasionally, a reader will reach out and thank me for my books. Sometimes it’s a generous review, or they will stop by my booth at a con and say some kind words. Once, I even received a handwritten letter. More often, it’s a private email. Last week I received an email that was so profound [...]
When I was in High School, back in the early 90s, I made a fun, goofy movie preview for LEGO The Movie. It seemed like a ludicrous concept which made it perfect for me. (Apparently I was before my time.) I loved the idea of making movies, who doesn’t. I took a film class [...]
Over the weekend I received an unnecessarily brutal review for Angst on Amazon. I’ve got a pretty thick skin after so many years, and there are enough people who enjoy my books that I can roll with the occasional bad review. But this one stung. Maybe it was bad timing. Maybe I just wasn’t in [...]
I forced myself to finish the 5th, and final Angst book last weekend, and it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. Even though I had written the final chapter long ago, and knew exactly how to get there, I struggled. While closure can be a good thing, it is often painful. After [...]
I wrote Clod Makes A Friend for a lot of reasons. Mostly because I, too, was bullied. Just before 2nd grade, my family moved from Omaha, NE to Kansas City, MO. Our Omaha neighborhood was pretty tight knit. I had friends, had even “married” another six-year-old (yeah, never went through that scared-of-girls stage) and I [...]
So, Angst 5: Something with Something Angst, is coming along fine. Everything’s fine. For some reason, working 50 hours a week, being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, and now having to exercise has slowed my progress. Weird, huh? My new PD meds have made me as focused as a teenage boy at a female gymnastic [...]
A writer friend of mine recently expressed some of her frustrations on Facebook, and how, sometimes, writing can feel thankless. Her post wasn’t hateful or negative, she was merely disheartened. I get it. You pour days and soul into your work, and when it’s all done, the rewards don’t always feel like they compensate the [...]
When I am on the downhill ride of a novel, that part where the ideas tumble out so fast I almost can’t type enough words per minute to keep up, in the back of my head, I remember thinking, “I’m going to keep this momentum going.” At this point of the creative journey, I [...]
I’m not what some would call a successful writer. This is not a complaint, merely a realization. I haven’t sold 100,000 books, they haven’t made Angst The Motion Picture, I haven’t been interviewed on a late night talk show. (Yet.) Hell, since 2005 I’ve only completed three books when many of my indie peers pump [...]
I learn more about writing with every book. I wrote the ending of my 3rd fantasy novel, Drowning in Angst, years ago. I've been editing the rough draft and had to chuckle at the format of those last chapters. Apparently I was still putting a double-space after periods. Pre-editor, old-school, typewriter formatting at it's finest. [...]
