Punked-up Fairy Tales!

Just an update on the anthology that came out this month, and what's next.

Pondering Rejection

I'm thinking about rejection on a number of levels lately. This post will be rambling. The TL;DR is this: Rejection is more about the one saying "No" than it is about the one being rejected.  Why am I thinking about rejections? Creatively, I face rejection all of the time. Every time I send a query …

Reviewing The Last Prospector by Cairn Rodrigues

In astronomy, the solstice occurs twice each year - when the Sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky.   The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).  The day of the solstice is either the longest day of the year (in summer) or the shortest day of the year (in winter) for any place …

Separating the Ego from the Work

I'm getting better about reviewing books, especially since I'm trying my hand at reviewing comics more frequently.  I never minded doing book reports in school. I think the combined concern that my opinion is of little consequence and that reviews are of deep importance to the authors and lives of books makes it hard for me to do …

What’s Happening?

Yes, I am aware that I'm off schedule. That I'm barely blogging at all, and when I do, it's at odd hours, about odd topics.  Every blog feels like a blurt that's been scratched onto a post-it note and tacked to the internet tree. I might gently suggest that you get used to that. The …

Critique groups and Book-dating

I know - deep in my guts I know - that the next step forward for me in my writing is to find critique partners. A critique partner is different from a beta reader. A reader comes at a manuscript as just that - a reader.  A critique partner approaches a manuscript as another writer. …

Yeah, it’s done. But is it Done-done?

I really enjoyed this article in Forbes with various authors weighing in on when a story is finished.  The writing part is pretty easy to figure out. You've completed everything you've set out to do, and you've typed THE END at the bottom of a very large document. The revising part is far less concrete. …

“Real” Writers and “Real” Authors

{steps on soapbox} ahem-hem. I am a real writer because I write.  I'm a writer because I have to write on a regular basis in order to stay sane.  I write as my chosen form of creativity.  All of the above qualify me for the title Writer.  Yes, in the past, I've been paid to write …

Three Reasons Why Writers Are Crazy

In all honesty, there are way more than three. Chuck Wendig came up with 25. From my "serious artist" exercise, I think you know I'm not the sort of person who buys into the whole stereotype that successful artists have to be addicts or somehow broken in order to be brilliant.  I don't really believe …

A Laboriously Extended Metaphor on Perfectionism and Self-Doubt

I'm a perfectionist. As one of my friends likes to joke, "I'm working on my perfectionism." No one holds me to as high a standard as I hold myself.  I don't see it as bad or good.  Sometimes perfectionism is useful. Other times, it can be stultifying. I've made friends with my inner editor, and …