Archive for the ‘Short Fiction’ Category

Anyone playing along at home might have noticed that I’ve had a recent run on stories getting picked up for publication. As of a few weeks ago, I’ve hit six for this year. A not-inconsiderable chunk of the credit for that sits with my writing group, the Wayward Writers. Not that we have a name, [...]

I’m 43 now. Nothing has changed, I suppose. It’s just a number. Some people obsess about turning older. As a kid, you want so bad to be an adult. As the years start sliding away, you want to be a kid again. To hell with that. I fought hard for these wrinkles–these gray hairs. Time [...]

I’ve been a bit radio-silent for a while, and for that I apologize. Just like I do every time I go radio silent, I suppose. This writing thing, I’m telling you people. It is not for the weak of heart or the lazy. It just isn’t. Between some tight writing deadlines, some pretty rigid (but [...]

Art of the Follow-through

Posted: February 20, 2012 in Novels, Short Fiction

The wisdom goes, you can’t edit what you haven’t written. I know that as well as anybody. After all–I went a long time thinking I couldn’t write novels because I couldn’t stay focused for that long. Part of becoming serious about my writing was finishing pieces. Not just novels, not just first drafts of stories, [...]

I’m feeling all writerly today, possibly due to a few day stretch where I was unable to get any writing or editing done. (As a related aside, drivers, pay attention when you’re on the road. A car is just a slow-moving half-ton bullet. Corollary: my daughter is doing fine after getting flipped up onto the [...]

So here we are at the end of January. I set a pretty ambitious schedule for myself this year, so let’s take a look at the scoreboard. Edits on Ink Calls to Ink are officially at the halfway point, which was my goal. I hope to finish edits in February. Part of the push to [...]

Pausing on the slow decent into madness that is the holiday season, it occurs to me to take stock. Sure, 2011 isn’t over yet, but I can New Years from my window, so it’s good enough. Anything that comes up between now and then will be a pleasant surprise, the icing on the gingerbread cookie, [...]

“The tango never stops in Buenos Aires. It goes on and on and we all dance to it in our time, helplessly drawn when fate initiates the cabezazo.” — from “Father Pena’s Last Dance,” Hannah Strom-Martin Inspired by irrepressible Christine Yant, I have decided to adopt Fan Letter Sunday. And it’s largely because of this [...]

My sci-fi noir story “Odd Jobs” leads off Space Tramps: Full-Throttle Space Tales #5 which goes on sale today. I’ve already read it, and it is a fun celebration of space opera fiction. Mine is a classic tale of fringe characters with uncertain motives, deals too good to be true, revenge, and a sex bot [...]

Foolscap is coming up next weekend. If you’re not familiar with the Foolscap convention, answer these three questions: Do you like sci-fi/fantasy fiction and art? I’m not talking movies or tv, here. I mean the flat stuff. Are you a writer or artist of the above either a) just getting your foot in the door, [...]