Blog
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Kindle Unlimited is Half of My Income
As writers, we must define success and hold the definition dear. To do otherwise is to invite depression. Creative types are vulnerable to all the highs and lows of the emotional rollercoaster. For example, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t dream of hitting number one on the Amazon Best Seller List.It’s…
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Write Through the Pain to Crush Writer’s Block
“Eating Smores around a campfire doesn’t necessarily solve writer’s block, but it might help.” – Scott Moon, camper Most writers have other jobs that pay the bills. Many have families. Some have serious physical disabilities that make every task, including self-motivation difficult. I was reading an article about Andy Rathbone (who writes books for the…
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Reclaiming Youth – 1
Right now it is 8:10 in the morning on a Saturday that promises to be busy. I have worked a lot of extra hours and accepted an overtime shift tonight as well. There hasn’t been as much time for family as I would like, so I have some play dates and honey do lists to…
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Kindle Unlimited, Part 2
It is still early in the new Kindle Unlimited game. Since the beginning of this blog, I have focused on positivity, avoided rants, and tried offer something useful whenever I can. So please don’t expect to see me pulling out my hair or acting the fool here or anywhere else. I am sure the big…
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Short Fiction and Kindle Unlimited
Where were you when you heard about Amazon’s changes to the Kindle Unlimited policy? I was having the wind knocked out of me after publishing my first serial short story, Grendel Uprising: Proof of Death. Initial reports of the new payment policy upset some authors and caused others to do the happy dance. The version…
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All Writers Love A Request For A Writing Sample
Yesterday, I received an email from the editor-in-chief of a publishing house. This was a result of a novel pitch I did at OWFI 2015. I hand’t planned to pitch, but something inspired me to go for it. I wasn’t ready. I had every expectation of making a fool of myself. The interview went well,…
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Proof of Death is Off to the Editor
I just sent the first story of the Grendel Uprising series to one of my favorite editors, Samantha LaFantasie. She does very thorough work and does it without delay. As always, I am a bit nervous to see what a professional editor has to say. There will be a lot of needed corrections, I am…
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Grendel Uprising (my secret project)
During the incredibly rainy month of May, I worked on the first of several serial short stories that have been dying to get out. This has been a lot of fun to write, but has been the genesis of serious distraction. First off, I started to develop a pen name for the project, mostly because…
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Thoughts on Pen Names
It will come as no surprise that I dream of earning a living with words; writing full time; going pro and whatnot. As such, I revisit the idea of writing under various pen names in various genres. I read widely, why not write in the same manner. The idea of using pen names is purely…
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Who Plays Those Jerry Bledsoe Changes, Daddy?
Stephen King has a way of drilling a phrase or detail into your head. The last time I wrote a blog post, it was “Travlin Jack.” I discussed how the use of this phrase and others could be analyzed through the lens of Book Architecture (a new literary technique by Stuart Horwitz). As The Talisman progresses and Jack…
