Interview: Dawn Vogel, Author of the Brass and Glass Steampunk Trilogy

Hey guys! Today I got the chance to interview NW Author Dawn Vogel about her soon-to-be-completed Steampunk trilogy. Pull on your Jodhpurs and aviator goggles and let’s get cracking! Let’s start with a quick run-down of Brass and Glass. What’s it all about? The Brass and Glass trilogy follows the adventures of Captain Svetlana Tereshchenko […]

“But think of the art!” – Dispatches from Dystopia

There is this common tune, that great art (and great art movements) comes from periods of strife and political unrest. While it’s most famously seen in music, take rap or punk as examples, pushing back against oppression is also a major influence on the British comic book scene in the 80’s. The panacea we’ve been […]

Descent into Dystopia: Cobalt City Edition

I know I’ve discussed the current Cobalt City novel RESISTANCE once or twice before. For new readers (or those with the memory of goldfish), RESISTANCE is the novel I started last November as a way to process what I saw as our country’s decline into fascism and straight up dystopia. I’d hoped to be finished […]

View from the Trenches–On Deep Edits

If you’ve been reading this blog for long enough, you’ve probably heard me talk about Of Rooks and Ravens, the big, weird fantasy novel set in the world of Ravensgate. If you have missed all the randomness about how the project evolved, that’s okay. It’s a Gothic high-fantasy with an ace/aro female academic forced by […]

Behind the Story: The Complicated Journey of Madjack

On May 16th, Meerkat Press will release their eagerly awaited superhero anthology Behind the Mask. (It’s available for pre-order now and the advance reviews have been great and the table of contents boasts some exciting names.) This is particularly relevant to me because my Cobalt City story “Madjack” happens to be between those pages–a fact […]

Evolution of a Character: Gato Loco

I don’t know how other authors do it, but at least in my case, it’s uncommon for a character to leap fully-formed from brain to paper. I find that often times the character comes together in bits and pieces until they’re ready to be seen. And even then, they can continue to evolve over time. […]

Bookkeeping, a.k.a. Time is Never on Our Side

It was a pretty typical Saturday morning writing group–some writing, some socializing, some knocking ideas around. In discussing how some town names are more common than others, a story idea was born. Well, less an idea and more of a seed. A McGuffin. And when it was suggested that I write that story, sooner rather […]

The Calm Between Novels

As announced elsewhere, I finished the first book of the Ravensgate Chronicles a week ago. Yep. Draft uno of Of Rooks and Ravens is behind me, complete at 86k and change. The next book, Redemption of the Yellow Wolf, which will feature the undead hunter Ulls Sturmgard, the silent monk Whisper, and the feral Bloodood […]

Lyrical Influence

One of the things us writerly types like to preach is that to be a good writer, you should also be a reader. It’s sound advice. We learn by watching someone else do it. You can stand to learn a lot from good writing, like how to pace an action sequence, or how to foreshadow […]