July 2017

Here are the top tropes from the Amazon Kindle Mystery, Thriller & Suspense–>Suspense–>Horror list as of July 27, 2017.  As I was investigating the list, I found something surprising… Detective investigates horror – The River Is Dark by Joe Hart Try to find out why loved one did horrible thing – The Silent Corner by […]

I started journaling on a blank half-page.  The first few lines were the usual rubbish.  Then:  “How much journaling is enough?” popped up, and I had to wonder.  I normally do nothing, or three pages. During weeks where I have a lot of freelancing to do, it’s generally nothing. But in that half page, I

Here’s my current schedule: Do “human stuff” like get dressed and eat breakfast. Write Hustle Study Lunch Freelancing Family A lot of what I’m seeing is that I’m not spending my “hustle” time wisely; I get into a habit of doing things that are pleasant to do, but not especially effective in marketing and promotions–like

A question that I simply had to answer on FB…everyone else was addressing the fact that it’s fine that stories without elements of the supernatural are considered horror, but not talking about underlying reasons why.  Genre is often a marketing category–not a logical one.  I realized that I’ve actually read broadly enough across the history of

Someone asked me what my preferred platforms were for print and ebook publishing and why.  The details have updated since the last time I blogged this, so here’s the current advice: Print Lulu – have used but not since 2009 or so.  LOTS of complaints.  Do not recommend. CreateSpace is a branch of Amazon.  Pro:

The question was how to jump in and advise a newbie they were making mistakes. The deal I’ve made with paying it forward is this: If someone asks me for help, I warn them that I’m truly analytical. (Usually by that point they know, but I still feel obligated to say so.) I go over

I’m struggling with an anxiety/depression cycle (again).  Part of the problem is that when I take care of myself, I feel my anxiety or depression more acutely than I did before I started taking care of myself. Numbness.  It’s comforting. I try to tell myself that it takes energy to feel numb, not the deadness

I’m running a study project for a writing group; I thought I’d note down my current study process here, too: Pick the right book, by a long-term pro in the field.  15+ years of writing a book a year, a book that’s less than 10 years old (and push back the 15+ years if the

Curated by Kris Rusch, the Science Fiction and Fantasy binge reader bundle provides 19 novels and umpteen short stories by the likes of Kris, Anthea Sharp, Thomas K. Carpenter, Dayle Dermatis, and more. I have a novella in there–By Dawn’s Bloody Light: A Fairy’s Tale.   As Kris says: What kind of fiction will you

Here’s the deal.  I’m overwhelmed with stuff.  Part of me wants to just charge in:  the sooner I get started on the mountain of tasks that I (always) have in front of me, the better. …But the problem isn’t that I have “a mountain of tasks,” it’s that I think of them as a literal