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
I am making progress on my NaNoWriMo project, “Infinity’s Reach.” Today I am working on chapter 13. On one hand, I am eager to share it with people who have been cheering me on. On the other hand, as I write quickly, I realize there are many things I want to fix and change. So … More Progress
Well, after last week’s last blog, the obvious question is, How goes NaNoWriMo? In one word, slow. Because I am working on a book I already started, I dropped 14,000 words in on the first day of NaNoWriMo, and have since added about 6500 words. That’s not too bad, considering that today is only Day … More Slow and steady wins the…something
Today is the last day of October, and tomorrow morning marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. For those who know NaNoWriMo, you’re know what’s going through my mind right now. Anticipation. Excitement. Wonder if I am making a terrible mistake. It’s a major commitment of time, energy and patience–both of you and those … More Last gasp. NaNoWriMo, here I come!
It’s a good news, bad news scenario. First the good news. I finally am making time for writing–my writing, the stuff that ruminates in the back of my mind when I am busy doing other stuff here at the University. When I am writing articles for Southwestern Spirit magazine, playing webmaster, teaching classes or sitting … More Over the Hump
If you’ve been keeping up with my blog recently, you probably know I was on stay-cation. Stay-cation is my feeble attempt to share a vacation with my wife on a limited (read nonexistent) budget. It wasn’t all stay at home; Monday and Tuesday we were down with my son and his family in Austin. Saturday … More The Adulation of Millions…or at Least Eight
This is the second year that the Rough Writers and I have followed our tradition—that’s the one where I take everyone to Sonic at our last meeting of the school year and treat everyone to root beer floats. I say root beer, but we’ve never been a group for homogeneity, and so I suspect some … More Bittersweet Chocolate
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
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
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
The Great Adventure 