Thoughts on Living the Life Creative
(I attended a "Writers Salon" put on by the wonderful folks at James River Writers late last year. An interesting evening. JRW is a great local writer's organization. The exercise was to do some "free writing" in a short period of time. Don't worry about editing or spelling, just write. The prompt is those first two... Continue Reading →
Where do you get your best work done? There are lots of stories about where creative folk get their best ideas, mine usually come when I can't record them – driving, in the shower, in the middle of the night. But I don't see as much about the environment where creation takes place. In my... Continue Reading →
I have no idea how I forgot to post this one! For the second time in five or six attempts, I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge! NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place each November. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. That sounds like an enormous... Continue Reading →
I’m all set. The car is clean, seat adjusted, my window sign carefully affixed. The first call arrives just as I leave the highway and enter the city proper. A young woman on her way to the gym. She’s forgiving when I’m a couple minutes late. The app and I are still getting to know... Continue Reading →
Wherein, I rat myself out. One of the great things about New Year's resolutions is that, by this time of year, everyone has forgotten that you ever made any. But I did make some (HERE), and the idea was to work towards them all. So with half the year behind me, it's time to see... Continue Reading →
Almost a year ago, I published my first book, a short story collection titled "Shorts". While there are several novel-length projects also under way, the short story has always been one of my favorite story forms. But it's one that doesn't get much respect. Over on my other blog, "The View From the Phlipside", I... Continue Reading →
Until I started writing novels, I didn't realize I had an issue. An issue with character names. My short stories often involve characters that are never named, or there are only a couple in the story. I didn't have to spend a lot of time working on names. Longer forms require more characters. And, most... Continue Reading →
Seems like I've talked more about the obstacles to creativity recently than actually being creative. Let's see if we can't change that. I recently stumble across a blog for short fiction called "The Drabble". It has been a struggle to find quality short fiction sites that are active. This site actually does fiction, non-fiction,... Continue Reading →
"I bought your book." It may seem strange that I find those words frightening, but they are a little scary to the first time author. Maybe they're scary to all authors, I can only speak for myself. It's not that I don't believe in the stories in "Shorts". If I didn't like them, if I... Continue Reading →
So here's the story on the paperback edition of "Shorts". Which I promise you is just days away. Unless I mess up again. This is all being done by your humble servant, me. Which means that sometimes real life gets in the way of the creation of my independent publishing empire. Like losing my job... Continue Reading →
Stories Are My Life 