May 25, 2015

Find at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble & more. So you have some story or novel planning to do. You’re feeling a bit pressed for time or pressed with concern for writer’s block. Try a classic story line and build your story around it. A. A table has been dropped by your character’s house….

March 25, 2015

Save, save, save. My hard drive crashed at the start of February. It was not pleasant, but this is what I had done that made it far from heartbreaking. I had backed up all my files in September on an external drive. Should have done it more often than that, but I wasn’t worried because…….

March 18, 2015

One simple rule. I have had several rules over the years that have served me very well. One rule is that if I have a goal, I should never stop pursuing it. This rule has a kissing cousin that follows the same determination just replace “goal” with “habit.” It is my belief that once you…

July 31, 2014

mixing it up in SF genres One of the really difficult things I have found about writing SF is that there are so many subgenres. I have been doing research so I can be certain which one(s) I fall into. After reviewing the various sites that explain SF subgenres, I sat down to list the…

February 19, 2014

I write time travel novels, and one of the features that stands out when a character travels in time is fitting in with the culture.  That includes clothing, behavior, hair styles, social interaction and such.  Since my characters move about in time, I have had to research to make sure that Mick is wearing the…

January 29, 2014

Branch of the family tree, okay vine. Often when I read science fiction, the main characters and certainly the supporting and stock characters rarely have family.  I don’t mean they don’t ever have family, but family is not the cause of change or action in them.  Family is window decoration in most novels.  Yet family…

July 31, 2011

I got sidetracked by blogging, and I think I let it happen on purpose. Today I uploaded my first book (In Times Passed) to Smashwords.  It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done.  Researching blogging let me settle into the fact that my book was now available.  I have been redrafting…