I’m not sure what compelled me to reach over for my phone the other night and Google, ‘how to write pulp fiction.’ Maybe it’s that something that has been nagging me about my novel. On a subconscious level perhaps, I have worried that my main character is too angsty, or Read more…
I had every intention of finishing my manuscript rewrites before my kids left on spring break, but as it happens March is too busy for me. Life has taken hold and I’m averaging less than 1 chapter per school day. All that to say, I have to push back my Read more…
This morning I went running and finished, Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. Since I was running, I wrapped up the epilogue in the audiobook format, which is read by the author himself. The chapters I read via the physical book were also entertaining and went by Read more…
I started writing The Crucible Experiment sometime in 2018, and I expect to have it completed and ready to pitch to literary agents (fingers crossed!) before my kids are out for spring break. It’s probably a good time, then, to reflect on what I’ve learned these past four years in Read more…
It’s a Friday afternoon in glorious Florida, the thermostat in my car read 83 degrees outside. I know this might sound hot, but to me it’s just great. Especially when I was supposed to travel to Dallas this weekend. They’re supposed to get clobbered with a snowstorm this weekend. Sorry, Read more…
After Philip K. Dick published Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1968, the novel quickly attracted the attention of Hollywood filmmakers. Martin Scorsese was interested before the project landed with Ridley Scott, who had just left the production of another major science-fiction franchise: Dune. While one can only guess what a Scorsese Read more…
The cohort for the Clown School class of 2022 met in the lotus auditorium on a cool September afternoon in Los Angeles. The black curtain covered the stage, everyone waited for the president of The Clown School to make her grand appearance. Everyone except Jecinda expected the grand entrance, anyway. Read more…
In each genre, there are conventions that readers expect to find. Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, General Fiction, non-fiction, and the rest each have norms that define them. This information helps readers decide whether he or she might be interested in a book, and helps the storytelling along. So, Read more…
Before there was Game of Thrones or Star Wars, there was Dune. War and the power struggles of those who wage it have been central plot devices for millennia. War is as primal as sex and love. Now, take a world with a cosmic power struggle and add man-eating sandworms, a hostile desert planet, and Read more…
I’m switching gears from science fiction to read and review a war novel for Coffee or Die Magazine. I pitched it to their Senior Editor who handles the entertainment section. After a few emails and spitballing ideas over the phone, I have concluded that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Read more…