Just In Case You Haven’t Heard…
I have this little thing, called a book launch, happening tomorrow. It’s for a book I like to call Tesla’s Ghost. For those of you who are interested in science fiction, mystery, suspense, steampunk,...
View ArticleA “Ghost” of a Chance
Tesla’s Ghost is now available on Amazon. Technically, the paperback’s been available for about a week, and the ebook’s been available for pre-order for about the same amount of time. But my book (#22...
View ArticleHero Worship
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” –John 15:13 NIV I’ve come to the conclusion that the essence of a writer’s life is seeing how otherwise disparate elements...
View ArticleIt’s Not About How Good You Are
This is graduation weekend, and this morning I sat on the stage, looking out on students I have been teaching (and trying to teach) for the past four years, as well as their parents. In addition, I am...
View ArticlePayback from Readers. Or Not.
Little do most readers know, that there are two ways they can pay the author for the story that they read. First, there is the obvious: pony up some shekels and pay the old fashioned way. But in this...
View ArticleUnhappy Camper: The Link Between Writing and Depression
“Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you.” –Unknown As long as I have been a writer, I’ve been interested in learning and studying famous writers and how they work and live. One of the...
View ArticleA Lover’s Challenge
I was in love. I might have thought I had been in love before, but I really hadn’t know what love was until I met Shelly. She was my world, my future, and everything I thought about. I asked Robert, my...
View ArticleWelcome to Writer’s Block City.
Yeah, I know. Physician, heal thyself. I’ve written about writer’s block many times before. What it is, how to deal with it, how to get over it. I’ve talked about it in class. I’ve helped students with...
View ArticleStill Alive. Still Kicking. Still Writing.
It’s amazing how much of my life is motivated by guilt. When I’m not writing, I feel guilty for not doing so. Then when I start writing, I usually get obsessive about it, and I neglect something else,...
View ArticleKeep It Simple? Or Complex?
In 2012, I decided for the first time to join the crazy international project known as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for those who are familiar with it. Each November, hundreds of...
View ArticleThe two biggest challenges for an established writer
Famous? No. Rich. Definitely not. Established? Check. If you’ve been writing a while, been around the block, had a few titles published under your byline, you get to the point where putting sentences...
View ArticleProblem Child
I was successful (well, mostly) in raising a beautiful daughter and a fine son. They are both in their thirties and my son has a family of his own. I have a colleague who raised three daughters. When...
View ArticleNews from Columbia, Maryland
I’m sitting in our booth, trying to sell books, at the annual national convention for the Society of Adventist Communicators in Columbia, Maryland. At home in Texas, it’s still raining after pummeling...
View ArticleReality Check
Hiya Folks: Here I am again, talking to you somewhere between writing life and real life. And that’s what I want to talk about today. How do you live in both worlds peaceably? Writing life: I just came...
View ArticleI’m getting better. I’m still the same.
Let’s see. Have I touched base with you since I got back from Maryland? I don’t think so; not really. We’re in Day 6 of National Novel Writing Month–or NaNoWriMo as the natives know it. This is...
View ArticleWhere do you bury the bodies?
NaNoWriMo is coming along swimmingly. So far, I’m ahead of schedule. I’m not killing myself off, both because I don’t have to and because I don’t want the quality of my writing to suffer (too much)....
View ArticleHalfway There
NaNoWriMo is halfway completed, and so am I. Sort of. Well, I have almost 25,000 words written, but the book isn’t anywhere near halfway done. In fact, when the rough draft is done, as any of you who...
View ArticleRaking Leaves and Telling Stories
It’s my week off for Thanksgiving break, and I have a to-do list a mile long. I also feel like doing nothing. It’s also National Novel Writing Month. For those who aren’t familiar with it, that’s when...
View ArticleHow do I do this? I really don’t know.
One of the bad–and good–things about teaching other people how to write is that you have to stop and think about the process yourself. I’ve been teaching writing as a professor now for about 20 years,...
View ArticleHow to Write a Christian Thriller
When I listed on my bio on Twitter a couple of years ago that I write Christian suspense, one of the writers who connected with me asked (partly in jest and partly serious, I think), “What is Christian...
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