I’m sitting here in my easy chair, nursing my wounds after a tree got back at me yesterday for cutting off one of its branches. I thought I had positioned myself safely, but when the branch broke free, it smacked me square in the face and broke my nose. I ended up going into the … More A Little Cake, A Little Humble Pie
Don’t get me wrong. Criticism hurts. It probably hurts me more than most people. I have always had a need to seek approval from other people, to feel that people like me. But I also know that I will never improve as a writer unless I know where I make mistakes. After 40 years in … More In Search of Criticism
This weekend I finished reading a great little book called “A Curious Mind” by Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman. It’s told from the perspective of Grazer, who is a well-known and successful producer associated with director Ron Howard and Imagine Entertainment. He attributes all of his successes to the simple fact of being curious, and … More A Thousand Paths to NO
After a dry spell of a couple of months, I finally got another review today on Amazon. Of course, the problem with reviews is that you can’t guarantee they will be good. The review was for my end time book, If Tomorrow Comes, and states simply, “The story would be interesting if it wasn’t basically … More Affirmation vs. Propaganda: Mythology in Storytelling
You know how it goes with brilliant ideas. Sometimes there are…complications. I still think my concept of putting a low-cost e-book on the psychology of writing is a good idea. I think that the fact that I have been writing along those lines for five years in my blog is great. It’s even wonderful that … More A Complication with a Compilation
If you caught my blog yesterday, you will know that I have been debating for a while what my next writing project will be. I finished five books in 2013, chief among them the Champion Trilogy I came out with during the summer. Since that time, I have been considering myriad possibilities, some more realistic … More Learning from the Past
This morning I posted something on Facebook that I am eager to see response to. It is “irrefutable evidence” that time traveling is happening around us, and has been for some time. Obviously, I don’t truly believe in time travel and the photos and video that are shown are either digitally manipulated or innocent items … More The Lie That Tells the Truth
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I have said more than once that there are no guarantees in life. And that goes for writing as well. I told a fellow magazine editor one time while we were watching our first issue roll off the press: “Enjoy … More Positive Strokes
Back in the late 90s, when I was a book editor at at Seventh-day Adventist publishing house, I had two friends who wrote a couple of books about how the world was going to end. One of them had his office right across from mine, and shared his work as he was writing it. As … More I apologize. OK, maybe not.
I have a young friend who sees himself as a writer of screenplays. He has education along those lines, with some of it coming from me. He’s currently working on a short film that he has high hopes for. I’ve read the script, and I also believe that it shows some promise. I’ve actually read … More Give a Man a Fish
The Great Adventure 