I think my highlight of my day was getting lunch with Jay Allan, one of the best Military Science Fiction writers in the field. He was extremely gracious and let me hammer him with marketing questions the whole time. Super great guy. Other than that, I think Dean Wesley Smith’s talk was probably the most […]
The Fine Line As An Artist
As an artist it can be tempting to “play the same old hits” and keep the money train going. But artists also need to be flexible and venture out into new content too or everything will get stale. This comes on because I saw Lindsey Buckingham last night, the former guitarist of Fleetwood Mac. He […]
I Am Writing For You: A Guide To Treating Readers With Respect
This last week there’s been a barrage of authors out there who are taking shots at readers. We saw this a lot with the situation in the comics industry over the last year, where so many of the creators fought the fans when they’d produced a lot of politically driven narrative their fans didn’t like, […]
Authors Don’t Trick Your Readers – An Analysis of The Batman/Catwoman Wedding
DC Comics’ big event hype over the summer has been the Batman/Catwoman wedding. Now we all know how comics have worked the last couple decades, and we know by proxy that “nothing is forever” – and by forever, I mean lasts more than 2-3 years before it gets rebooted, redone, respun. How anyone can take […]
Creative Energy Is In The Air
It’s been all over for the last month or so, and it’s reaching a peak right now. Think of what Kanye West has been doing, putting out 5 albums all within the span of a month. That’s a crazy amount of creativity and work. You might think, “I can’t possibly work that hard on creative […]
How To Know If The Negative Voices Are Right Or If You’re On The Right Track
As you progress in any field, or really anything in life, you’ll find that you will get a contingent of negative voices toward whatever you do. They’ll come in a variety of forms from outright hostility, to some subtle passive aggressive remarks, even to quiet concern over the direction you’re heading. It can get overwhelming […]
Friend Friday: Daniel Humphreys On Proper Word Counts For Indie Authors
This Friday I’m happy to be joined by my good friend, Dan Humphreys. He’s best known for his Dragon Award nominated zombie series, but he also does really cool urban fantasy work with Fade, his recent book out by Silver Empire Press. He stops by to talk about word counts for indie authors, and how […]
For Steam And Country Discussion At Lorehaven Books
Lorehaven is a Christian book club highlighting sci-fi and fantasy books by Christian authors. I wrote an article for their speculative faith a couple of weeks ago, and a brief summary of what steampunk is that led on their site this morning, including a little bit about what I wanted out of the genre that’s […]
Speculative Faith Article: Let’s Talk About Sex
Speculative Faith, a Christian magazine dedicated to SF/F writing for Christian authors had me write an article. As sex is such a crucial plot component to The Stars Entwined, I decided to write about what I’ve seen in the Christian genres, and gave my thoughts on the place of sex in fiction. Sex is a […]
Friend Friday: V.R. Konner On Overrepresentation of Minorities In Fiction
Today we have a wonderful guest, V.R. Konner, who is an author and graphic designer responsible for the maps which will be in future installments of the Baron Von Monocle universe books. He stops by the blog today to talk about his experience in writing, and how he avoids the trope of overrepresentation which is […]
Should Authors Work In Multiple Genres?
Like anything, it depends on your goals. Working as an author is a balance between art and commercial appeal, and so one has to keep both in mind while creating. Over my one year span of releasing in the business, I’ve released works in three different subgenres of science fiction: Space Opera / Mil SF, […]
Flash Fiction Friday – “Fired Up In The Desert”
I don’t usually write much random fiction in the middle of projects, but this popped into my head today. It’s extremely short, but I’ve been meaning to do a little more weird west and don’t have time for much so this hopefully will quench my thirst for awhile. Free to read, fresh off the word […]
CLFA Book Of The Year Award – Last Day To Vote!
First off, for the 220+ people who have voted for For Steam And Country already, thank you so much! Super humbled, and energized to work hard to get you books 2-3 out this summer, and the James Gentry novella “Knight Training” which will be available to patreon subscribers tomorrow. But there’s just a few hours […]
Why Disney Can’t Make A Good Star Wars Film To Save Their Soul
Disney just can’t do Star Wars. They don’t understand it. And there’s a big reason why—they’re a soulless monolithic corporation trying to recapture nostalgia in a property that is really about intense spirituality. You can’t create spirituality if you have none. Star Wars really fell off my radar after The Last Jedi, which I found […]
Space Opera Talk With David V. Stewart
I went on author David V. Stewart’s youtube this weekend which did really great, over 1000 views. We delved deep into writing and genre, and I think it was one of the more interesting streams I’ve recorded. Now we’re about one week into The Stars Entwined‘s launch, which has gone really fantastic. Though I didn’t have […]
For Steam And Country Is Award Nominated!
Just a few days before the release of my next book, The Stars Entwined, I’m very honored to receive my first award nomination for For Steam And Country yesterday for the CLFA Book Of The Year Award. This Award is among 1700+ members and there was fierce competition as there were so many good books […]
Writing To Your Audience
DC posted a strange tweet today regarding one of their comics, seeming to double down on the “we’re going to make comics without action that is just signaling identity politics” that’s spreading through the comic industry like cancer. It made me think about writing to your audience, and the trouble the comic industry is having […]
Someone Tried To Get Me Kicked Out Of A Sci-Fi Convention… And You’ll Never Believe What Happened Next!
Lately I’ve been reporting on a lot of trouble in science fiction conventions. Even though the attendees, guests, and organizers often beat their chests and signal to each other constantly by shouting “diversity and inclusivity!” from the rooftops, the reality of these conventions is often anything but diverse or inclusive because of the way they […]
What I Wanted From Space Opera
We’re about 15 days out of The Stars Entwined‘s release, and I want to shift gears to talk about space opera. 1999 saw the end of an era on TV with both Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 going off the air. Those shows really were the blueprint for great space opera on TV, with […]
The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For: The Stars Entwined Cover Reveal!
The Stars Entwined, my military sci-fi/space opera epic, is finally done and ready, and we have a March 20th release date through Superversive Press. I’m loving how this turned out, and early readers are saying it’s my best work so far. If you missed the mailing list giveaway and reveal yesterday make sure you sign up. I […]
Friend Friday: Steampunk Lives! By Vaughn Treude
Folk who frequent here know I’m a big Steampunk fan. I think some of the best work in the genre is happening right now — as it’s settled in from its 2012 craze that saw a big public interest in Steampunk, but literature failing as it reskinned horror and romance novels into what should have […]
Why I’ll Likely Never Work For A Big Publisher – Thoughts On DC Comics’ Social Media Memo
Bleeding Cool actually obtained a company memo from DC Comics about their creators’ social media, which vaguely states “mean spirited” tweets are against their company policy. The fake news gossip site itself is every to gleeful to talk about how the policy is meant to “pre-empt” a buzzfeed fake news article which is going to […]
Quality Takes Work – There’s No Way Around It
Everyone’s always trying to get to the top of the game in whatever they’re doing with the least amount of work possible. It’s human nature. We all want to be the top-top of whatever we’re doing, and more importantly we want to do that fast. I get approached for writing advice and marketing advice on a […]
Brief Thoughts On Editing A Sequel
This is the first time I’ve gone through a book as a sequel while I did edits. It’s a very interesting process which is a bit different than the first. The characters are established, so it’s more making sure they’re consistent in their actions with the first book (having grown) than it is ensuring you […]