It’s not every day you get to take over a famous author’s blog. I’ve actually done so a few times in my coming onto the writing scene (hello to those readers who are here because of that!), and each time so far it’s come with a pretty specific “write about this” guideline. Last night, I had the […]
And The Award Goes To…
…a few books I read this last month! If you thought I was going to talk about a bunch of people in LA giving accolades to themselves, sorry not sorry. I don’t care about that. What I am doing is launching a concept in which others have done many times in the past, and […]
I Ain’t Buying Comics Anymore
To which I mean I’m completely done with single issue comic pamphlets. They make a mess, they get all over, hard to store reasonably, there’s not really much collector value long term, as I’m not going to want to revisit most of these stories in 20-30 years or whatnot. And even then, things that are […]
Do Away With The NEA
A friend of mine wrote a very well thought out, passionate response to the funding cuts for the NEA, and why we should consider keeping it. I wrote a response which I thought was worth sharing with you, my readers, and here it is: As an artist myself, I’m happy that the NEA is going […]
Great Strides
If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that my family is very active in supporting the Cystic Fibrosis foundation. This medical charity is honestly more important to me than anything else, writing career included. We do a lot to donate and support this charity as a family. If you’re not familiar with the condition, […]
Geekchats: The Man Who Makes Amazon Bestsellers Redux
Last week, I mentioned I would have Jason Rennie, editor and publisher of Superversive Press, the http://www.superversivesf.com website, SciPhi Journal and the infamous Forbidden Thoughts anthology that propelled several authors into bestseller status on Amazon. He is the creative genius of the future, one who I’m reliable told that Dragon Award Winning Author Brian Neimeier has […]
But, Aren’t You Worried You Don’t Look Professional?
In my life, I’ve heard a lot of hoobaloo among the traditional publishing crowd about looking professional, and how imperative that is toward the respect one attains in the writing business. I remember some years ago, when a budding writer friend of mine messaged me in a flurry of panic about how she couldn’t wear […]
Oh, It’s Just The Press Being Diligent…
If you thought Big Media / Big Tech fake news was something innocuous, MSNBC had quite the slip up this morning: “He could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that, that is our job.” — MSNBC contributor on the air today. It’s not about […]
I’m done!
Finished up my pass on For Steam and Country and sent it off to be edited and prettied up. It turned out very nicely. I think it may be even more fun than Rescue Run, if that’s possible. The concept is that a teenaged girl finds out that her father is dead and that she’s inherited […]
Big Tech Is Not Your Friend
Many of you are going to be reading this via Facebook or Twitter when this blog hits. These networks, as big as they are, are dangerous tools that are propagating a narrative to you. There’s been a lot of chatter lately about what these giants are going to do to “stop trolling” or “stop the spread […]
Some Quick #PulpRevolution Reading
A friend of mine brought to my attention a couple of anthologies produced a couple of decades ago, where a couple of heavy hitter editors went back and researched some of their favorite old out-of-print pulpy stories and assembled them for ease of read for the new generation to discover these Worlds of Wonder: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Old-Stuff-Gardner-Dozois-ebook/dp/B00G1FBO7G […]
Appendix N Is Your Science Fiction Red Pill
Despite the fact that the publishing industry seems to be at an all time low: bookstores closing, a glut of mediocre product on Amazon, so much to choose from and no real way to distinguish, the internet has given us means by which we can find interesting stories more easily than we used to […]
Going For The Throat
That’s what the bacteria or virus or whatever inside me has done. Spent last night unable to sleep, throat so swollen I can’t swallow. Hurts! Needless to say, if you haven’t realized, my Geekchats with Superstar Editor Jason Rennie – The Man Who Makes Amazon Bestsellers has been pushed back to next Friday on account […]
#GetOnGab
Super sick today, laying in bed with a fever, but I did hit 500 followers over on the gab.ai social network. I love it over there, and want to help promote them. In honor of that, I am doing a book giveaway of a signed Star Realms: Rescue Run to mark this follower milestone. I’m […]
A Landslide Victory!
The other day, I asked my dear readers to help me choose the title of forthcoming book, which will be a YA Steampunk novel about a young farm girl who inherits and airship and hijinx ensue! Action. Adventure. Romance. Thrills! Here’s the results of the polls: 50% For Steam And Country (Apparently my readers like […]
Friendship In The Time Of SJWs
An author friend of mine wrote an interesting blog about social media and politics from the perspective of a European living in America, citing how bad it’s become. As I mentioned on Vox Popoli last week, “The Science Fiction and Fantasy writing and convention scene is one of the worst SJW converged subcultures.” When people […]
Love Is A Drink That Goes Straight To My Head
It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air. I took the occasion to tell some of my favorite authors how much I’d love to co-write with them on Twitter, but the day also spurs thoughts as to what romance is within the context of Science Fiction, and whether it has a place being central to […]
Geekchats: The Man Who Makes Amazon Bestsellers
There’s one man responsible for creating a short fiction anthology that propelled so many authors into the Amazon Top #100 author rankings, no small feat at all. He did it by telling stories that no other publisher would dare touch. Short fiction is an incredibly tough market, with most not selling at all in today’s […]
A Mailing List + Crowd Sourcing A Book Title
I’m getting hip and with it in this modern internet age with a mailing list, as I realized I’ve skipped that valuable marketing step. I won’t post to it except for new releases and perhaps a couple of times to push for Dragon Award nominations, so it will be low additional email quotient for you. […]
#PulpRevolution Mindset
This might be total confirmation bias speaking, and I mean this to spur discussion rather than ramble about it too much. I see a very different style of posting from the Appendix N, Pulp Revolution, Science Fiction Should Be Fun crowd than the Literary SF group. The Pulp group makes fun, talks about stuff they love. […]
On Gatekeepers
I had a totally different blog for this morning planned, but Dragon Award Winning Author Nick Cole got me thinking, as he often does (and on a totally off topic note, I’d appreciate if you’d nominate Star Realms: Rescue Run for Best Military Science Fiction and Fantasy for this year’s Dragons). This is mostly aimed at […]
Perennial Baycon Guest Gets Nasty
Despite Baycon’s misleading form letter about their long time guests, there many who are a part of the con year after year, none who could remotely be on the right side of the aisle, and most of whom don’t really have any product out on the market that’s relevant in the current year. But, they’ll keep […]
2/11/17 Star Realms Signing, Demo, Tournament: Game Kastle, Fremont CA
I’ll be doing a book signing, demo of the game and running a tournament for anyone who wants to come down tomorrow, Saturday the 11th at Game Kastle in Fremont, CA. Address is: 3911 Washington Blvd in Fremont and their store phone is 510-651-4263. https://www.facebook.com/GameKastleFremont/ Will start at 12:00 PM Noon for demos and book signings […]
The Art Of The Troll
There’s a LOT of posting going on now, messages, comments, fake amazon reviews, trying to troll me. I expected this backlash fully. What I did not expect… that these people don’t know how to troll effectively. There are some efforts going on that I don’t want to dissuade because I find it awesome, as it […]