I take some pretty detailed setting notes when writing books, and I’m glad I have those, but something I hadn’t done in my book ones of series, is set up a detailed timeline of my universes. As I’m getting into sequels, I find this increasingly important to have as I’m referencing past events in the […]
Forging Ahead And Taking Joy In The Little Things
What makes writing a tough business in my opinion is not really the work involved, the constant need for marketing, or even the overwhelming industry pressure to “conform or be cast out”, but it’s how long it takes to get a sense of accomplishment. While it feels good to finish short stories and the like, […]
Friend Friday: RPGs vs. Fiction by Clara Storm
It’s the return of friends Friday, a new feature for 2018 on the blog where the platform here is used to give some other great voices in fiction some attention they deserve. Today, we have Clara Storm, who you can follow on Twitter @TanukiHanabi and she’s also on Steemit here. Clara dives into the differences […]
How Poul Anderson’s Science Fiction Genre Warnings From 1975 Apply Now More Than Ever
Yesterday, Dave Truesdale, editor of Tangent Online, sent me a classic interview he did with science fiction great, Poul Anderson. He warned me it was a short interview, but that didn’t make what Anderson said any less substantive. It was eye opening to see how Anderson saw the genre in 1975 — already in decay […]
Richard Fox’s The Ember War: Comic Adaptation!
Yesterday, Castalia House made a big announcement, which is going to make a much bigger splash in the entertainment world than a lot of people might realize. I’ve signed with their new comic imprint to adapt Richard Fox’s bestselling military science fiction novel The Ember War into a graphic novel. Fox is one of the biggest […]
Comic Writing Tips
Over on Periscope I gave some brief comic writing tips as i’m hip-deep in my SUPER SECRET comic book project. I give some good tips, especially on pacing here:
I’m In Good Company
It turns out I was wrong in saying WorldCon made an unprecedented move in banning someone over politics. It has happened — one time before. Today on the blog we’re going to take you all the way back to 1939, where WorldCon was, like in this year, all too proud of blackballing someone over their […]
An Open Letter to Worldcon GoH Spider Robinson
Dear Spider, My name is Jon Del Arroz. I’ve been a big fan of yours since I was in high school (which is about 20 years ago now) and one of the reasons I was so excited to go to worldcon was that you were going to be attending. I made a video about how […]
Music Is Mindset
Something I’ve wanted to post about for a bit in terms of general “successful mindset”, is about music. It’s no secret that I’m quite into bubbly pop music, especially that of the legendary Taylor Swift. I love listening to music on vinyl, which is why I would recommend you to check out these turntable guides for […]
What A Great Way To End 2017!
I’m actually sick in bed. Which means I’m spending the day reading manga, sci-fi books, watching anime, and of course a little bit of shitposting, but I didn’t bring you to the blog today dear readers to complain. I’m elated. 2017 has been such a great year for me, probably the best of my life. […]
What Are You Outraged About Today, My Dear SJW Friends?
A lot of what I do is point out that so much of these little cliques of Science Fiction writers focus their entire lives on (they certainly don’t focus on selling books) is how they make FAKE OUTRAGE stories out of something that shouldn’t be a story at all. The last week exemplified this as, […]
The Awful Truth About Forgetting
Yeah I may have clikcbaited you a little bit with the title. But it worked. You’re reading. I’m not going to do a blog about forgetting (of which I really do have a terrible long-term memory), but about a book titled The Awful Truth About Forgetting. I mentioned it briefly in the links in the […]
It’s Okay To Be Male
Tor.com, a site that so egregiously banned from commenting one of the most popular minority authors in the field today (yours truly) for posting about actual on topic space opera during their #SpaceOperaWeek instead of playing their identity politics garbage, is back at it again. Today their writer urges a QUOTA on what you read […]
Can Gamma Male Protagonists Evoke Classical Pathos?
I had an interesting discussion with a friend last night as we were digging far too deeply into anime. Almost every anime show (especially those set in a high school environment, which is the majority of them), have male protagonists that are your classic gamma male archetype. They are socially awkward, especially around women. When […]
Comics to Prose Writing Styles
A lot of readers came here this year, but for those unaware of my history, I cut my teeth on writing in comic form. I became serious about comic script writing in 2010-2011 when I created my webcomic, Flying Sparks, which did pretty well with an audience and lasted 8 issues. Going back and reading […]
Why The Old Way Of Publishing Is Failing
Yesterday I ran into a very powerful blue-checkmark literary agent who represents a rather big NYT bestselling author on Twitter. He was going off on sensitivity readers and while describing exactly how it is censorship, claimed it’s not censorship at all. It was a bit of a crazy thread, all about shaming authors into not […]
Sci-Fi’s SJW Terrorism: An Editor’s Inside Look
At the beginning of September, I did a piece proving beyond reasonable doubt that there is anti-male discrimination going on in the publishing industry, and that it’s widespread. It resulted in the Mean Girls in charge of the science fiction publishing organization known as SFWA coming after me and really attempting to destroy my life […]
Alt-Hero: Paperbacks Now Availble!
Two days left in the campaign for the final push. It’s been such a tremendous success and I’m honored to be a part of this amazing project, also featuring one of my writing heroes, Chuck Dixon. We’ve added the paperbacks as an option now so at the very least go out and grab the ebooks […]
The Book 20 Years In The Making
Last night I finished up my edits on what will be the first in what I hope will be many space opera / military SF novels set in this particular universe. It’s titled The Stars Entwined and follows an Internal Affairs investigator for humanity’s Interplanetary Navy as he navigates a powder keg of a political situation […]
A Second Alt-Hero Novel Is A Go!
It’s been part of the stretch goals, but I haven’t wanted to talk about it much until it was a sure thing, but I am now contracted for not one but TWO Alt-Hero novels for this cool project that keeps expanding, keeps getting better, and is fast becoming an intellectual property to be reckoned with […]
Alt-Hero and Project Update
Getting a lot of traffic again this week from both the Marvel #ComicsGate article and the announcement made last night about Alt-Hero. First off, a cool interview on my writing background just went live here. For those new here, hi! I’m Jon Del Arroz, geek entertainment journalist and science fiction author with a healthy dose […]
As We Win More Bigly, Our Enemies Get More Desperate
What a couple of weeks its been! First, I want to thank my readership for their tremendous support and faith in Gravity Of The Game. I’ve only received great feedback on how wonderful of a story it is, and most of that is coming from non-baseball fans! Like always, I put a heavy focus on character and […]
Thursday Youtube: RPGs and Writing With Jeffro Johnson!
Jeffro Johnson literally wrote the book on RPGs and writing, a critical analysis that changed my life and my perspective on fiction in SF. The book is Appendix N, named after the famed appendix in the original Dungeons & Dragons, showing the influences of its creators in Sci-FI and Fantasy. It’s beautiful, and the genre […]
Still Not Tired Part 2: FREE Novella Giveaway!
Despite a concerted high school-style effort to get people to shun me by the Mean Girls club, I hit 1,500 followers of Twitter today. I like round numbers, so I’m going to celebrate by giving away a free advance copy of my forthcoming novella, Gravity Of The Game! Made it! Thank you everyone for following […]