In the secret space of dreams, where I dreaming lay amazed. When the secrets all are told, and the petals all unfold. Attics of My Life – Grateful Dead As a writer, I dip into my memories, scrounging around for bits and pieces to create my Frankenstein stories – not literally mind you, just that …
One of the many problems with my first draft of Shadow of the Black City was the weakness of the desert magic. I hadn’t put enough time into it – and, really, I don’t think I was ready to tackle the issue. I knew this was a problem before I even started revisions, so I’ve …
Nomad Khyrg al Wahid witnesses an airship crash in his arid highland home known as the Jashem. Two survivors emerge from the wreckage: an ethnographer and his assistant from Bogozechi, a dark industrial city rife with intrigue. Khyrg’s clan rival, Anwar ibn Masaud, having also followed the crash, arrives at the crash site moments later …
From Dichotomy Wiki.: A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts. In other words, it is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are: mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts; and, jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the …
Writer Identity, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process Read More »
I didn’t know what to expect when I began revising the first draft of my first novel, Shadow of the Black City. Right now, I feel like I’ve got even more questions than when I began. Sweet. Truth is, it’s not all bad news. Sure there are page long deletions (alright, pages upon pages, but …
The Revisionatrix is a Cruel (and Cool) Mistress. Read More »
Everyone who writes finds themselves lacking motivation at one time or another, probably more than we’d like. But there is hope. Even though most of us can’t afford to employ Mr. T (even at his advanced age, I’ll bet he can still whip most of our asses) here are some pretty obvious ways to rejuvenate …
Millions of people doing their thing on any part of this earth at any given time have great story ideas swimming in their head (to wit). There is a subset of people who try to get those ideas from their heads onto paper in the form of writing, visual arts or music. Within …
This week I reached two writing milestones: I submitted my first fantasy short story, The River Lords, for publication and I began revising the first draft of my first novel, Shadow of the Black City. Each of these milestones represents something different. The River Lords represents completing a project and putting it out there and, …
I love this guy. No matter how I’m feeling, Patrick Sweany always brings me up. He’s the effin’ best, not to mention nice as hell. Go out and buy his stuff. Now. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkTgrkll05A] This post is inspired by author Robert K. Lewis, known poster of great traditional blues. I’ll be posting more blues in the …
Earlier today, I posted another snippet from The River Lords, a short story I’ve been working on for several weeks. The metamorphosis of this story has been fascinating–and educational. About a week ago I thought I had a draft I was ready to submit for publication, but something nagged at me. I wasn’t all that …