During my first year of writing, I managed to produce – A book for you to read.   On my second year of writing, I decided to reach out with two Twitter feeds, and a book for you to read.   On my third year of writing, I decided to join three writers groups, had […]

I just started submitting short stories again.  No excuses—I stopped sending stuff out to focus on my novels.  Okay, that was my official excuse, and I’m sticking with it.  Looking back, it wasn’t the best plan.  Be that as it may, it’s been a few years since I submitted stories.  I’m guessing I’m not alone […]

  A couple of recent season finales have made me think about how to do a cliffhanger right.  To be honest, the last season finale of The Walking Dead pissed me off enough to stop watching the show, and it made me think about how they did it wrong. To do a cliffhanger correctly, you […]

I’m working on the 3rd draft of my latest project. I still don’t have a good title for it, right now I’m calling it Wolf Book 3. As I was sifting through reader feedback, I wondered how many drafts it normally takes for me to get that completed feeling. I looked back at the last […]

I finished the UCSD Copyediting certificate program.  The program consisted of four quarterly classes: Grammar Lab, Copyediting I, II, and II.  The editing project for the last class was pretty challenging.  I recommend this to anyone who is looking to improve their grammar skills and who wants to learn how to use copyediting marks, style sheets, and […]

I’ve been sitting in Procrastination Station for too long.  I don’t have a good excuse except for that pesky elephant that’s been smirking at me from across the room. You know that old joke: How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time. This one is a whopper and has been daring me […]

When I joined Goodreads a few years ago, I felt like I should write reviews for the books I read. After doing this for a month or two, I changed my mind.  I still will rate a book (as long as I finished reading it, and if I liked it enough to read it then […]

I started out NaNoWriMo with high hopes, and was not disappointed.  No, I didn’t make 50,000 words, but I did kick my latest project back into high gear.  To do this, I started tracking my word count at the beginning of November.  Seeing this progress helped me to push forward.  From then until now, I’ve […]

How often should you write?  Everyone has a different writing process.  Some people write for a living and others squeeze in a half-hour of writing time during their lunch break.  My philosophy on writing is the same as it is for most other endeavors:  Make forward progress. Your idea of progress probably depends on your […]

So I’m taking this grammar class. . . How’s that for an opening?  I imagine it would be the beginning of a horror story with grammar Nazi’s chasing you with red pens in hand.  Okay, I went to Catholic school, so it would be grammar Nazi nuns chasing me with a ruler in one hand and a […]