“The first draft of anything is shit.” –Ernest Hemingway I’m nearing the completion of the first draft of my first chapter on my latest book. And the more I write on it, the more unhappy I am with it. One of my father’s sayings was: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s … More Ugly Baby
I’m currently working on my 29th book and, well, not my first novel, but it’s far from my first. I’ve been writing a long time and even though I haven’t gotten rich off it, there are many who know me because of my writing. Once I had my university president tell me that someone stopped … More How to Build A Novel
When my son was involved in a car accident 20 years ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury, I learned a bit about the brain and how it works, mostly through talking with doctors. They often refer to the brain as a “black box,” meaning that whenever there’s an accident, they really don’t know what’s … More When There’s Nothing To Say
Arkwright by Allen Steele. 336 pages. Tor Books. Going back to my early childhood, one of the reasons why I became a writer is that I wanted so much to live so many lives. I wanted to be a soldier, a fireman, a detective, a scientist, an astronaut, well, you get the idea. What I … More Review: “Arkwright” by Allen Steele
This is the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy. I had read The Hunger Games a year or two ago, before the movie came out. And I liked it. But the back cover copy for the second book convinced me that I wouldn’t like it. Marketers (I assume it was the marketers) targeted the … More Review: “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins
As somebody who has written a lot, and continues to write a lot, the most comfortable place for me to be is in front of a keyboard. The least comfortable? On the receiving end of reviews. Well, I guess I should qualify that. Writers will always get good and bad reviews; that’s the nature of … More An Author’s Best Friend
I’m my own worst enemy. It’s been a busy few days, with the whole family traveling up to Oklahoma for a reunion. Now it’s just Gavin, my grandson, our three dogs and me. Shelly and my kids drove off to Jefferson to get my daughter moved into a new house. Those of us who stayed … More Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
In the past 18 months since I started my indie author enterprise, I have experimented with lots of ways to get readers’ attention. After all the contests and advertising and promotions, I have come to the conclusion that the bottom line for selling books online is in reviews. How does one get reviews? You get … More My 99 Cent Sale
I have a new theory when it comes to book publishing. Well, it’s actually not that new. I’ve been thinking about it for the past year. At 18 months in the indie book business, I am still an adolescent when it comes to publishing. I continue to read advice from other indie authors. Some of … More Critical Mass
There are millions of wanna-be published authors out there. Some of them–a lot of them, actually–actually end up writing some semblance of a book manuscript. And once it is written, there are quite a few that think this: It is the greatest thing that has ever been written. All I have to do it get … More Is Your Writing Starbucks, 7-Eleven or Home Brew?
The Great Adventure 