Last night was the long-awaited season premiere for The Walking Dead that answered the question: Who was Negan going to kill? I won’t include any spoilers here, because I know there are probably some readers out there who haven’t seen the episode yet, and I hate it when that happens to me. But on top … More It’s the Kobayashi Maru All Over Again
I am the faculty sponsor of the Rough Writers, the student creative writing club here at Southwestern Adventist University. We’re pretty open and loose about what people can bring to the group to be critiqued, and inevitably there is at least one or two writers in the group whose favorite genre is fantasy. Many would-be … More When Nonfiction Becomes Fiction…and Vice Versa
I’ve been talking about it ad nauseum for months, if not years, now. I’ve described it like Kipling’s legendary blind men describing the elephant. I’ve moped, complained, dreamed, whined, hoped, and all the other descriptive verbs you can think of. Now I am ready to unveil at least a little part of it. And I … More Introducing: “Tesla’s Ghost”
I want to try something different, and I need your help. I read that Andy Weir, author of The Martian, started his book off by posting it chapter by chapter on his website and looking for feedback from his readers. I would like to do the same thing. This isn’t the first time that I’ve … More The Great Adventure’s Grand Experiment
People occasionally ask me how many books I have written, and my usual response is, “Written? Or published?” Because there really is a difference. Every writer has ugly stepchildren: those stories, articles, books and other projects that started off as grand ideas but never saw the light of day, and in the end, the writer … More Ugly Stepchildren and Other Beginnings
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” –Ecclesiastes 1:9 Another school year has started–the 19th for me as a university professor (amazing!)–and I have classrooms full of students who are eager … More Old Wine in New Wineskins
Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book 1) by Craig Alanson. 494 pages. Amazon Digital Services. Yesterday I wrote a blog about humor, and the value of including it in suspenseful stories. From my perspective, it goes far in helping the reader relate on a human level with what’s going on in the story, and it lightens … More Review: “Columbus Day” by Craig Alanson
Belisarius II: Storm at Noontide by Eric Flint and David Drake. 859 pages. Baen Books. My daughter Melissa, the English major purist that she is, rolls her eyes when I talk about alternate history stories, as if they were worse that pornography. And I guess it is sort of an eye candy to me, especially … More Review: “Belisarius II: Storm at Noontide” by Eric Flint and David Drake
Starship Eternal (War Eternal Book 1) by M. R. Forbes. Quirky Algorithms. 433 pages. I’m a member of Amazon Prime (which I recommend), and one of the benefits is that once a month I get a free ebook to read on my Kindle. Pretty cool. Of course, you have to choose from their list, but … More Review: “Starship Eternal” by M.R. Forbes
Here’s a sneak peek at the writing project I am working on this summer. Some of you may recognize some of the names already. Prologue: Land of the Free July, 1892 Off the Coast of New York Fritz Lowenstein let the cool morning ocean breeze hit his face as he leaned against the ship’s … More “Land of the Free”
The Great Adventure 