In other words, how important is originality in fiction? Should you be trying to write something original? First:  what makes you think you would recognize originality if you saw it?  When I was reading slush for several online magazines, I would run across the same idea over and over again, written by people who clearly […]

A question came up on Twitter that I’d like to address: Is it more important to have good ideas or good craft as a writer? A professional writer had told the questioner that good ideas were more important than good craft; that agents and editors needed something unique to sell and they could edit it

If you are a short story writer, then it is likely that you struggle with writing novels; if you are a novel writer, then it is likely that you struggle with writing short stories. And yet people do write short stories, and they do write novels, so it must not be impossible.  Just…difficult to translate. NOVEL WRITERS

Once upon a time, a person had an ambition to do something new.  This new thing, it didn’t seem like a big deal.  “Aha!” said the person.  “I’ll just tuck that into the corners of what I’m already doing.  It will be fine.” But it was not fine. The new thing kept getting pushed back

Release day!!! Universal Link | Goodreads (reviews) One thing was certain, that the zombies had everything to do with it… Almost nine years have passed since that golden afternoon when gentleman zombie Charles Dodgson told Alice Liddell and her two sisters the story of Alice’s Adventures in Underland, the story of how Alice goes to

Available through June 10 here.  Includes my book, Alice’s Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts.  (Book 2, The Knight of Shattered Dreams, will be released May 31!) “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice; “I’ve become one of the undead!” A horrible plague has spread across Britain, infecting some of its citizens with zombieism. The British, however, have

Coming May 31…   One thing was certain, that the zombies had everything to do with it… Almost nine years have passed since that golden afternoon when gentleman zombie Charles Dodgson told Alice Liddell and her two sisters the story of Alice’s Adventures in Underland, the story of how Alice goes to the land of

I am running on fumes trying to get caught up over the last few weeks.  Here’s one of my posts from my newsletter, which originally ran in January, when I decided to change my newsletter format from trying to accomplish All the Things to what I felt was most important.  If you’re interested in signing

The King of Cats (Defenders of Dream #3) Universal Buy Link | Goodreads (reviews) Whose friendship matters most in the land of dreams? Ferntail the cat and his friends have been summoned to the capital of dreams. Why? No one explained, but it seemed foolish to decline. Perhaps the King of Cats would like to recognize them