I think my story is very much a milieu story. From Writers Digest: The milieu is the world—the planet, the society, the weather, the family, all the elements that come up during your world-creation phase. Every story has a milieu, but when a story is structured around one, the milieu is the thing the storyteller […]

So. I got contacted on Reddit about my book by a publisher who actually looks legit and wants to publish my book in English, in China, as a serial. I’ve checked out the company. It’s legit. And as tempted as I am? I’m pretty sure I’m gonna pass. Still have to discuss with Rod. I […]

“That’s so cliché” “Your story is full of tropes” “It’s been done.” When I see these mindless rants masquerading as serious reviews, I promptly consider the review itself to be utterly invalid and the reviewer herself to be lazy, unoriginal and vapid. Likely in need of a breath mint. Let me explain. A “trope” has […]

So yesterday, my little book had a very big day. I was Reddit’s Writer of the Day. I set my book to free for the occasion. It’s free until midnight tonight Saturday, actually. So if you haven’t read it, go download it. Reddit Fantasy, for those of you who don’t know, is huge. There’s usually […]

On my mystical writing journey, I’m doing ok. Not fantastic. I don’t have a ton of money to throw into book promo. But respectable. I’m a prawn for all you 20booksto50k’ers out there. Hopefully I will only go further from here. One really nice surprise I got today, I’m on the front page of Lorehaven. […]

I had an author interview published today. It was with Thisiswriting.com, a writing site in Australia. I won a marketing package with them and this was part of it. I think it turned out pretty well, but you guys can go here and look. Tell me what you think!

So I’ve entered Sorrowfish into the Wishing Shelf awards. I don’t really want to enter a lot of contests, but this one seems to be well run and gives feedback, which I would like to get. The contest is author-run. To me that is important. There are reading groups who evaluate the books. While I’d […]

I spent all day reading about chivalry. I do this. When I’m writing I need to explore until I find the PERFECT THING. So today I spent all day searching for Gawain and and the Green knight and chivalry and courtly love and Trystan and Iseult. I needed to find the right test of honor. […]

I’ve been writing, but not like I wanted to. Now I’m writing full force again. My marketing is in place for the first book, I’ll let it run and keep going. If I can get book 2 finished and out, I’ll be much better off. So where am I? Good question. I have an outline […]

UPDATE! It’s live! You can order Sorrowfish here! (ebook) Order the paperback here! Ok, so yesterday I logged in and uploaded my paperback MS and hit publish. I was going to do the same with my ebook. However, after I hit publish on the paperback book, I could not get to the ebook details. It […]

I’ve taken Mark Dawson’s class and I’m in the 20booksto50k® group on Facebook. There’s an ethos within these groups that says to rapidly release a series. Make the first book free (or possibly the first three books) Advertise. Hook your readers into reading the series. I don’t mean to grouse. But if I do that, […]

Dinosaurs are dragons. I don’t understand why this isn’t accepted fact, but it’s true. Look at them. I’m sure they even breathed fire. Until some scientist proves otherwise, I’m going with it. My husband thinks dinosaurs don’t have enough legs and wings. Fine. So wyvern. They’re still dragons. The word dinosaur wasn’t invented until 1841. […]

So, I spent all last week working on my book trailer and I think it turned out pretty well. It’s been well received so far. I did it with Adobe After Effects and a lot of work. You may view it here. Let me know what you think in the comments!

We’ve all heard that, as writers, we need to read outside of our genre. This helps us learn and expand–adopt and adapt devices that we may never have considered otherwise. Toss elements of a thriller into high fantasy, for instance. Stir scraps of mystery into a romance. Freshen up dusty old tropes with a dash […]

Some of you know I’m a dev and designer. My little company is known for gamification, but today I wanted to talk about using it in my writing. Because I did. SO FUN!!!!! I have been accused of writing this whole series to create an acceptable backstory for Ingress. Sigh. Not true. But funny. Anyhow, […]

I have a date for my book to launch! September 3, 2019. A mere 2 years and 2 months after I finished the first draft. I am consoled about my slowness by two thoughts. We are still waiting for Kingkiller 3 so I’m faster than Mr. Rothfuss. And hopefully the book two will be quicker […]

I have a small but loyal following here and wanted to give you guys an update. My web development company decided to try to launch 3 websites (in one week) at about the same time I’d planned to launch my book. Since we have to eat, we chose to be zen about the book launch. […]

So I’ve been working on writing ten minutes a day.  I’m writing book 2 and it’s really slow going. By the time my head gets into the space I need it to be in and I see the movie unroll in my  mind, the ten minutes has turned into 30 minutes. And I need to […]

So I have a marketing plan. It’s basically going to revolve around getting reviews with some advertising. But first I gotta make some freebies and some lead magnets. Which is fun. I want to give people things they will really like. Mostly my freebies will be deleted scenes or outtakes or stories or what have […]

So I’m in a Facebook group for indie authors. I posted the cover I’ve been working on to get feedback. I was actually on version 10 but posted version 9 by mistake. It had a couple issues but I left it, because after 18 years of design, I know you have to give groups obvious […]

We have looked at colors and their symbolism in the stages of alchemy, how these relate to story. We’ve looked at ring structure. The next thing to look at in our study of literary alchemy is duality. Duality pops up in ring structure. If you have a plot that looks like this: ABCBA or AABBBCCCCBBBAA […]

I walked into an actual bookstore. An independent bookstore, yesterday. It’s one of my favorites. Carmichael’s Books in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville. And I bought a hardback volume of How to Stop Time. I haven’t bought a hardback at full price in a while. Not from a bookstore, where I’m standing at the […]

My daughter read several chapters of my book and complained loud and long. She knows I’m an advocate for lightjoy. I don’t like grimdark. But she said my book is dark, so dark. I think she’s right. It is dark in many places, many of them very unpleasant. But it made me think about what I mean by lightjoy. I’m […]

One of the wonderful things about writing is the ability to create worlds, a fact Tolkien noted when he wrote his mythology. He referenced this obliquely when speaking of his Valar and their role in creation. But the idea was that this creation was a “concreation” or a “creating with.” And it allows us as […]

A goodie for my Wattpad fans and beta readers. If you remember the scene with Sara and Scott in a cemetery? Well. These are photos of the actual place, St Louis Cemetery. I’ll add more in a bit but I need to edit them. There are many mausoleums like ones pictured, but my favorites are […]

UPDATE: Stephen Pressfield has a new War of Art mini course and a new site for the War of Art. Check it out here.  It’s kind of funny that I started to write this post when I did. I was going to describe how Resistance, when unable to distract you, derail you or discourage you, […]

So, after getting several resources I’ve already discussed (which I’m still using) I also obtained the Story Grid book and am deep into it. It’s perfect. I understand it and it is exactly what I needed. The genre bit was difficult for me at first, I thought they meant sales genre. But no. Click above […]