Category: Uncategorized

  • So long as you know what you need to say, the words don’t matter (yet)

    I’m in the middle of revising. I enjoy revising. And I hate it. Other writers may feel the same – or differently. *For clarity – revising is what I call the editing done by myself. Editing editing is done in consultation with a real, live editor who hasn’t lived through the development of the book…

  • Midsummer Dreams

    I’m blogging in support of a friend today, on the topic of dreams. I had a Dream… I dreamed of being a published writer once. Ah, wait, no, I don’t mean a day dream. Of course I had the “dream” of being a published writer, otherwise I wouldn’t be here now, but long before I was…

  • Character is King

      I picked up something new to read this week. Well, something old, actually – in a lull between books I grabbed any old something from my bookshelf and started to read. The writing wasn’t the best. Well, no, I’ll be honest – the novel simply wasn’t written in the style I prefer. I like…

  • Seasonal energetic disorder

    I love the long days of spring/summer. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but it’s not so much the sunshine, or watching the flowers come into bloom that makes me smile. It’s the amount of stuff I get done. The only things I’ve ever read about the seasons and the affect have on people…

  • The Fussy Reader

    If you’re a writer, you must read. That’s the one piece of advice that’s universal – every writer you meet will tell you that reading widely is key to developing your writing skills. And I completely agree. What you aren’t warned, though, is that reading to improve your writing can make you an incredibly fussy…

  • Variety is the spice of life

    I have been writing like a demon this week. Deadlines are rushing towards me with the speed (and I fear the impact) of comets, so I have been bum-on-seat to hit word targets, sustained by chocolate when necessary. This approach works, but it can also be wasteful (and unnecessarily like to cause Type II diabetes).…

  • I hate to BRAG, but…

    We writers are an insecure bunch, but perhaps that’s not surprising. The average development of a book goes as follows: 1. I’ve had this AMAZING idea! 2. Oh wow, this book is going to knock the world’s socks off! 3. Er, this isn’t coming out how I thought it would. 4. This is awful. 5.…

  • A whole new world

    I love writing fantasy because in that genre you get to make it all up as you go along – don’t you? You absolutely do make up a new world, but “as you go along” might be problematic – whatever you create has to be internally consistent and make logical sense to the reader. I…

  • Hello, handsome!

    I never really know what my characters look like. Honestly – I like to keep them moving fast, not sitting for a portrait. So I was as surprised as anyone when I saw one of my characters on a music video on Youtube. Thanriel, the seriously gorgeous, angelic alien hero of The Last Gatekeeper, can…

  • 26 = infinity

    I was going to rant this week, but it’s spring, the trees are blossoming, my WIP is progressing well and I don’t want to spoil the sensation of everything being right in the world. So instead, I’m going to share a fact that blew my tiny mind when it was pointed out to me. There…