Yesterday I had the joy of giving final approval on the cover for The Key of Solomon, something I will be unveiling a week from today. And it got me thinking about something that happened more than 20 years ago. Back in the 90s, I was a book editor in Idaho–among other things–and a magazine … More Selling the Whole Package
I’ve never been a detail person. I consider myself a generalist, and have a reputation of getting a great deal of work done fast. The problem is that I find the details sometimes lacking when you focus on getting volumes of work done. It seems odd for me, a person with several decades’ experience as … More The Devil Is In the Details
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Broadway Books. 608 pages. I had heard rumor that this story was good and that it was going to be made into a movie. Then recently when Shelly and I went to the showing of Blade Runner (which you should really see), they showed a trailer for the new … More Review: “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
Eagle in the Snow: General Maximus and Rome’s Last Stand by Wallace Breem. Rugged Land. 320 pages. I’ve never read Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, even though I thought I would like to one day. The two main reasons why I want to read it is because (1) I think the … More Review: “Eagle In the Snow” by Wallace Breem
It seems like months since I wrote END and finished the first draft of The Key of Solomon. Like all authors, I wish that was the end of it and I could just hand it off to my readers at that point. But I know that was just the beginning of the work that needed … More What Happens After
Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:15 NIV) Back when I was working on my doctoral dissertation, I learned never to tell people what it was about. As soon as I told them I was writing about commodification of the World Wide Web, … More So….Why Witchcraft?
This morning, at exactly 7:15 a.m., I wrote the word END on my novel The Key of Solomon. I have finished the first draft of my latest book. Now the hard work begins. Some people love the rewrite process. I’m not one of them. I draw energy from the creative expression that comes the first … More The Writing’s Done. Now the Work Begins
I have a very bad habit. Somehow I have gotten in my mind that if I don’t finish something, then nothing bad will happen. It started when I wrote my first book. I knew that the editor was waiting for it. I put it in an envelope, addressed the envelope, put stamps on it, and … More Avoiding the Last Chapter
“Give your audience what they want, but not in the way they expect it.” –Robert McKee, Story One of the most memorable stories I have read was a book called Cryptonomicon, written by Neal Stephenson. But it was almost a book I didn’t finish. The book is about 800 pages long, like most of his … More Giving Your Readers What You Owe Them
Hey gang: I’m finishing chapter 15 of The Key of Solomon today. Here’s another sneak peek at this sequel to Salome’s Charger: Do-do-do-do-do-do-doo. The music blasted from the Porsche Boxster as they headed north up I-35 in the late afternoon. It was accompanied by an occasional laugh by Connie, or a guffaw by Ezra. “You … More Sneak Peek 3: The Key of Solomon
