The company I work for closes between Christmas and New Years, so I plan to use the time to write. I've been flailing a bit lately, suffering from an excess of ideas, pulling me in so many directions at once that I can hardly focus on one project long enough to write a sentence. Hopefully,... Continue Reading →
A Minor Superhero Obsession
I'm on a bit of a superhero bender right now. I just finished a fantastic short story collection called "Masked" from Gallery Books, published in July, 2010, edited by the amazing Lou Anders, who recently won a Hugo award (jealous!). My obsession with superheros isn't new, it dates back to the comic books I read... Continue Reading →
The Four-Project Plan
As long as I'm going to do too much at once, I might as well formalize it with a plan. First, let's take a step back. When I say "do too much at once," you know I'm being dramatic, right? What I'm referring to is my infamously short attention span, coupled with a fearsome mid-life-crisis-esque... Continue Reading →
At the middle of the year, some new goals.
I have discovered over the years that I need goals to keep me motivated. I'm also freaking out that tomorrow is the first day of July, the tipping point of 2011. Ye gads! So here goes. These are the two writerly things I'll be striving toward by the end of this year. First, membership to... Continue Reading →
Mental discipline.
How to keep your brain on one thing long enough to get a thing done. I imagine this is what ADD is like. I sit down to do something: read, write, compose an email, update the Uptown Express website, etc. And my brain pounces, suggesting a hundred other things that need to be done: groceries,... Continue Reading →
Willpower as a limited resource.
Recently, I heard about an astonishing study. Two groups of individuals were placed in a room with a bowl of radishes and a bowl of cookies. Each group was then given a puzzle to work on. The puzzle was impossible to solve, though none of them were told that. One group was allowed to eat... Continue Reading →
Podcasts for writers (and genre story lovers).
I’m a huge fan of podcasts. It’s the new frontier for geeks like me who published fanzines when that became cheap and easy(ish) with the advent of computers. But wait, I’m dating myself! Whoops! I love what’s happening in audio fiction. The only possible way I can keep up with what’s new and good in... Continue Reading →
Ideas are cheap.
I heard it said on a podcast recently, the award-winning I Should Be Writing, with the knowledgeable and easy-to-listen-to Mur Lafferty. Ideas are cheap. Anyone can have them, and practically everyone does. The key is execution. Most people spend their lives saying “someday.” A few try, fail, and never try again. Others give up too... Continue Reading →
Deep in the heart of revisions.
Writing this book took me ten years. Longer, really, but the actual writing of it started in 2000, when I had some “time off from work” (read: between jobs) and spent virtually every afternoon at Mozart’s, a gorgeous coffee house on the shore of Lake Austin in Austin, TX. It’s hard not to be inspired... Continue Reading →
Squirting air through meat.
Breathing is a problem of mine.
A lifetime of creativity 