I am teaching a class called Drama Writing this fall, and once again it will be a first for me. I will be teaching both stage writing and screenwriting in that class. Today I had the opportunity to read through the introduction of my textbook for stage writing. The author tells of a rejection slip … More Compelling Evidence
Maybe the title is a little bit misleading. Maybe not. I am one of those people who love–absolutely love–the creative process of writing. I enjoy the ability to create characters and even worlds that did not exist before I created them. I love spending time with these characters during the writing process. And I am … More Bad Medicine
Launching this new venture called Prevail Publications and sailing out on the stormy seas of independent publishing has introduced Matt and I to a vehicle that is both fun and infuriating. They’re called book trailers. Book trailers are just like movie trailers; you know, the previews of upcoming movies you see if you rent a … More “So what’s your trailer carrying?”
I’ve always been a square peg in a round hole. When I was in elementary school and high school, I was one of the outsiders. (Of course, I have learned since then that pretty much everyone considers themselves an outsider when it comes to high school.) I had creative tendencies back then, but being a … More Underground Novelist
A year ago or so I read a book series entitled Coyote, which was a retelling of the Mayflower story in science fiction terms. Some political dissidents steal a space ship intended to start a colony on a distant planet and start their own colony. The story develops from there in many different, interesting ways. … More Novels that Are Short Stories
I’m an old dog, and it’s hard for me to learn new tricks. I tell my class I was privileged to start my career on a newspaper that still used linotypes. They stare at me as if I was using stone flints and talked about the invention of fire. I won’t go into all the … More This thingy called social networks
No, I am not writing about myself. This is, as are most of my blogs, about writing books. Spring break is over <heavy sigh> and my Narrative Writing class has turned the corner from writing short stories to writing the first 50 pages of a novel. Some are falling into a panic, while others are … More The Complete Package
Writing students often fantasize about the life of a writer. I know I did. You see yourself starving to death, living in a small studio apartment somewhere, maybe even writing with a quill pen or an old beat-up Smith-Corona…well that dates me a bit. But you get the idea. Writers don’t often fantasize about the … More Grunt Work
Yes, it is on my to-do list to crank up the number of blogs that appear here. But today, I invited myself to be a guest blogger for the Rough Writers blogsite. You can read it here. And here’s a promise that you’ll be hearing more from me in days to come. gr
I’ve been writing a long time. More specifically, I have been writing stuff off the mainstream for the past five years or so. I tend to choose stories that don’t comfortably fit into one genre or another. And because of this, I’ve often gotten the word from publishers and marketers that my stuff may be … More The Self-Publishing Experience
