Last night, I completed the first draft of The Enemy Within, with some regret. Of all the characters I’ve written to date, Bobby Upton has to be my favorite. I hated having to finish his story and move on to another character’s, but I have a schedule to keep. And I have a sneaky feeling Bobby will…Continue reading Milestone in Writing: 250,000 Words

Today is Star Wars Day, a celebration of all things related to one of my favorite universes.  Growing up, I never gave much thought to what other people considered appropriate reading material (except my Mom, who was pretty strict that way). I ended up reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy, primarily Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, and…Continue reading May the Fourth Be With You

In a recent discussion in kboards, an author lamented the cost and time needed for a good editor to edit his novel. He asserted that a really good editor should need no more than a week to “read” a 70,000+ word manuscript. I laughed so hard my eyes watered. Aside from my time at Foxfire (the…Continue reading How Long Does It Take?

The Prophecy was my first novel, and it’s very dear to my heart simply because it’s the one that got me over the writing “hump.” I will always think of it fondly, regardless of whether people actually buy it or not. To me, financial success is far less important (at least, with this story) than whether…Continue reading The Sign of a Successful Story

My son and I were talking this morning about the creative process. He’s writing code for a game right now and started the conversation with a sleepy yawn because the code floating around in his head had kept him up all night, even after he went to bed. The characters from my books do the…Continue reading The World of the People

Because I’m new to fiction and marketing, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months studying ways to gain and interact with potential readers. Many of the marketing books out there promote using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to do so because of its ostensibly wide reach.  My gut feeling? Meh.  Of course…Continue reading Facebook, Shmacebook