April 2014

Informed persons tell me literary agents and editors have learned to dread the first week of December. Why? Many NaNoWriMo (November is National Novel Writing Month) newbies, flush with the endorphin high of finishing large blocks of text, immediately send out queries for those miraculous manuscripts. Or the entire manuscript, depending on the market and…

Read More Editing strategies for fiction

As promised, here are six non-explicit paragraphs of Moro’s Shield, the sequel to Moro’s Price. I offer no explanations of the action, or any promise that the published version will even look like this. It’s why they call these rough drafts, or Works in Progress, after all… *** “Ready?” asked the Ambassador. “Val, you need…

Read More Sneak Peek Sunday – Moro’s Shield, M/M space opera romance

For my wonderful readers who keep buying my crazy book, and telling other people about it, I’m working up a tiny reward.  This upcoming Sunday I’ll be posting a rough draft excerpt of Moro’s Shield here, and linked here: http://sneak-peek-sunday.blogspot.com/ This will be a non-explicit, six-paragraph look at what the boys will be doing in…

Read More Sneak Peek Sunday alert

Here’s a useful resource even if you don’t write for stage or screen: Scriptshadow. One of the most-referenced scriptwriting sites on the internet, this is a trove of sold-but-as-yet-unproduced scripts, calls for entry, industry news, and insightful essays on aspects of scriptwriting. It’s been two decades since I last wrote a script. But a couple of recent…

Read More Writing resource: Scriptshadow

If I had to plot out and embroider a large-ish beaded tapestry all in one go, I’d drive myself madder than I already am. Thankfully, through the magic of piecework and applique, I can do little bits of it at a time, while aiming for that final 24″ x 36″ wall hanging piece. Some of…

Read More Spring Moon embroidery

My fellow Loose Id author Zoe Rider has a new book out this week: a M/M contemporary erotic romance called Games Boys Play. It’s edgy, funny, and rather sweet (but don’t think that takes away from the sizzling bondage-play or character angst!) Here is the buy link from Loose Id. Here’s a great character interview, and…

Read More Games Boys Play, by Zoe Rider (adult content advisory)

I put this up on Pinterest, but it deserves a mention here. Blue Corn Chain is a necklace I originally finished in 1999. It’s a 37-link chain made of multicolored peyote stitch segments 6 beads wide and 24 beads long (before joining into a link). The colors are dark red, bright red, blue-purple, turquoise, teal,…

Read More Blue Corn Chain

…Because stuff like this keeps happening, to people who should maybe know better, but let greed, hope, and inexperience cloud their judgment. Case 1. Silver Publishing When I first started looking at publishing erotic romance in the summer of 2011, there was a rock-star publisher rising in the ranks, with some gorgeous covers, great writers,…

Read More Why we research publishers

Part 1. Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend another one of the Origins Project presentations at Arizona State University’s Gammage theater. ‘Transcending Our Origins’ was a wonderful group presentation across many scientific fields of expertise, including astrophysics, political science, human evolutionary medicine, criminology, biological anthropology, business, and genomics. The presenters were Lawrence Krauss,…

Read More The Origins Project, and more good news

*Also known as ‘That Stark Necklace’**, or ‘I Need To Make Something Red This Week’. **This has absolutely nothing to do with that TSTL family in Game of Thrones. When I was about five, I had a clear red plastic pendant that may have come from a quarter vending machine. The pendant was roughly an…

Read More Dragonfire necklace*

This is a classic piece of advice for new(ish) writers. It’s also one of the most frustrating, for a couple of reasons. Often, we simply don’t know how to do that yet. It takes time and work to gain the skills to ‘show’ instead of merely narrating important details. Even the critical reading skills to…

Read More Show me, don’t tell me