In 1996, I was one of two editors responsible for the launch of a national magazine directed at Christian parents called ParentTalk. It was a labor of love, a lot of work, and our pride and joy. But from the beginning we knew that there were no guarantees. The publishing house invested $250,000 into its … More Rule #1: Have Fun
My father worked as a machinist for General Electric for about 30 years. Several times he had the opportunity to get a promotion and become a supervisor, but turned it down. He had his own shop at GE, and liked to run it his way. He used to tell me to “leave the job at … More Meditation vs. Multitasking
For about a month, we have been noticing that our DSL internet has been getting slower and slower. Over the weekend, it came to a screeching halt. When I called ATT yesterday, I got a tech support recording that tried to walk me through the repair process. The recording and I together came to the … More The Great Disconnect
I am looking forward to this weekend. My son–who is also de facto designer for me books–is coming up from Austin for a photo shoot. We have reserved the TV studio at our University with its green screen for the shoot. We plan on shooting our main characters for the two covers there, then using … More Oh Shoot!
Three to five hours a day, seven days a week, for ten years. Ten thousand hours. A million words. Any way you slice it, the road to becoming a serious writer is not done overnight. Even those overnight sensations that hit gold on their first trip to the transom have the inevitable task of answering: … More Ten Thousand Hours
Shelly and I finally got our Christmas present to each other this past weekend. It was four days–well, three and a half days–at the Lighthouse Inn in Rockport, Texas, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. After 38 years of marriage, we still enjoy being with each other more than any other person in the world. And … More A Matter of Priorities
OK, first I just want to make it clear. Prevail Publications is me, and I am it. It’s the watermark I use for my indie publishing. Here are five books I plan on releasing this year: The Secret of Promise Island. An orphan brother and a sister are sent to live with their mysterious, strange … More Prevail Publications: Five New Books for 2013
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 am excited to announce that I finally passed 10,000 followers on Twitter. Now, I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you, and actually all it is is just a number. But it is a landmark of sorts, nevertheless. I have been involved with Twitter for about three years now, but it’s only been … More Ten Thousand Reasons
I just got done sending an email to Scott Wakefield, a friend I discovered on Twitter, who is interested in learning how to become an indie publisher. It’s been my pleasure to answer his questions and get him on the rocky road to self publishing, both paper books and ebooks. It’s been just about a … More Every Good Idea I Ever Had I Stole From Someone Else
