Wolfbreed is done, at least until someone buys it and asks for some sort of editorial revision. So I’ve returned to my long belated Hostile Takeover sequel. If you note the counters I’ve been keeping, I’ve removed Wolfbreed and added a counter for the sequel trilogy as a whole in Read more…
Due in January. Just got the cover: This one contains my story, “The Enigma of the Serbian Scientist.” Which is sort of a steampunk homage to Sherlock Holmes, wherein the murder victim is Thomas Edison. Judging by the description of the other stories (and the cover) I bucked a trend, Read more…
Working on my career, I’ve been thinking about the idea of writing professionally as opposed to writing as a hobby. Now I’ve been writing professionally in one sense of the term (getting paid) for a good fifteen years. But there’s another sense, meaning approaching the craft with professionalism. That comprises Read more…
I’m in yet another anthology, this time it’s the heavy hardback The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe, which, in addition to being a memorial to the late Mr. Baen, promises to be an annual event. You should also check out the web-zine that birthed this anthology. Within you will find Read more…
People trolling in the genre mines of Science Fiction and Fantasy often harbor some resentment towards “mainstream” authors who manage to write books with heavy genre elements and get them to be taken seriously by people whose job it is to take books seriously. (The Road being one recent high-profile Read more…
While I was gone I got my copy of Man vs. Machine, the latest Marty Greenberg/John Helfers anthology.I mentioned my contribution, “The Historian’s Apprentice”, earlier. I honestly think that it’s my best short-form work to date. Again, my story is singled out in a Harriet Klausner review. Unfortunately, her summary Read more…
Here’s a tip, if you can’t be bothered to write your own query letter, what makes you think your writing is salable? Writing a query is writing, this is the skill you are attempting to sell. If you can’t sell your skill at writing by writing something, that should tell Read more…
A comment about my post about the query letter spam I received suggested I make a few comments about what a good query letter might look like. Now, since I’m not an editor or an agent, I only have direct experience with two successful query letters. Both my own. I Read more…
I just sold another sort story, “Family Photos,” to yet another Marty Greenberg / John Helfers anthology (The same people who put together Man vs. Machine it’s out now, you should buy a copy) titled Future Americas. The story is a meditation on crime, victimization, art and celebrity— which has Read more…
You all might know Whatever, John Scalzi’s Blog, one of the 800 pound gorillas of the SF blogosphere. It’s the kind of place where just posting a comment will drive your own blog traffic up just from internet backwash. Unpopular it is not. So presume Mr. Scalzi should take umbrage Read more…