My wife is amazing. I’m not saying that because I like her. If you know her, you already agree. Recently, her internal frump detector caught a whiff of discontent in me, and she asked the insightful questions to get to the root of what’s wrong. In a word, it’s the publishing business. I’ve known I […]

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn on 12/8/2023. 2023 has been a busy year. Life and death reminded me to get on with this author stuff and I rose to the challenge, publishing three novels and a novella, as well as an audiobook. And I might finish another before the year ends. But I couldn’t […]

Currently in Print Here’s where you can find my published works (and audiobooks): The Seven Coins: Convergence – eBook or Paperback The Seven Coins: Silke’s Story – eBook or Paperback The Last American – eBook or Paperback Unchipped: The Last American – eBook or Paperback. Audiobook at: In Progress I’m actively writing the following, all […]

One of my life-long goals is to be a working novelist that people want to read. When I started out, though, the writer’s job was just writing, and for the last fifty or so years, that’s the skill I’ve tried to refine. But that’s not the only skill a writer needs. Here are some other […]

For The Last American, I reached out to my Facebook friends and asked what they thought of this baseline cover design. I got some really interesting (in a good way) feedback, ranging from “Looks like a great read” to a fairly detailed evaluation from a HIGHLY respected graphic design friend. Nobody mentioned the hand I […]

I started writing The Last American at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. At the time, we were living in a log cabin on Smith Mountain Lake. The story takes place in a fictional part of that same county, where the narrator’s family has been for generations. We were all unsure back then. Scared about a lot […]

I thought I had a real head start on my next story while The Seven Coins: Convergence is in Alpha Reads. I was wrong. Even though I have a completed draft, it was written before I really zeroed in on some key character attributes and motivations. It was crafted through a different lens than that […]

As I’m approaching the finish line on the second book in my series (chronologically, the fourth), I thought it might be helpful, especially for Alpha and Beta readers, to see my vision for the series. The series arc spans a score of millennia and multiple universes, but it does, in truth, center around a single, […]

The more I think about implementing AI technology, the more I realize we’re in our infancy in this space. To get ready, I’ve been learning the IBM Watson platform. It seems like a more approachable path than some of the others, and I found a really solid course on Safari Learning—Learning to Build Apps Using […]

Want to know how a story idea starts? For me, ideas for the Seven Coins series have emerged over the past three years. In that time, I’ve tweaked and morphed the global story maybe a dozen times. I like things to interconnect and overlap, so mapping out ideas and their connections is important. Last night, […]

In writing The Seven Coins, I’ve had the hardest time getting the Point of View (PoV) right. I started with an omniscient narrator, but he started getting a little snarky and my characters weren’t coning across well. Then I moved to what I thought was third person, but I was head-hopping. Head-hopping, I learned, is […]

In developing my “eight-year plan” to become a successful writer, I had to take stock of my strengths and opportunities. Part of that is thinking of who the other stakeholders are. The one group that I’ve neglected too much so far in my journey are readers. Now, keep in mind that I’ve only been published […]

I regularly read books in genres that interest me. Because my current novel is YA fantasy set in space, I turned to Brandon Sanderson’s 2018 novel, Skyward. Here are the writer-focused insights I derived early on: PoV Character Questions (ask these of every scene) what are you doing? what are you seeing? what are you […]

How do you prep for a writing contest when you can’t start writing yet? You clean up your tools… 😉 DON’T MISS A THING!Get notified whenever there’s something new!Get an e-mail whenever I post new articles to this blog.New books. Updates. Calls for Advance Readers.Invalid email address 2-3 times a month, at most–usually less. You […]

I love traveling for one primary reason: I get a lot of crap done. As you can see from the picture below, I’m ready for NaNoWriMo. After 3+ hours from Vegas to Atlanta, I was able to outline my next story. While it’s not super detailed, I feel pretty good about the direction I’m headed […]

I’m starting this blog as I approach the finish line on my first draft of The Seven Coins, which I hope will make a solid showing as a debut novel. I’ve been working on this book for over a year now and I’ve written (and retained) over 140,000 words. I expect it to top out […]

If you joined me for my session at DevLearn 19, you saw a chatbot on this page. Two days later, I broke the chatbot by upgrading my WordPress security. That’s part of the challenge of technology. Some things aren’t compatible with other things. I’m pretty sure I could fix the chatbot, but I have plans […]

Great existential question, right? But I prefer a practical answer, usually. You’re probably here to learn something about writing fiction. You probably want to write books people will want to read. Or, you might have heard that we have a chatbot that can help you become a better writer. Super! I’m glad you’re here and […]