The Latest
Star Wars: Is there a Fast Lane to the Force?
It's New Year's Eve tonight. I could lay out my thoughts about what I've done and what I haven't done this year, and my vows to...
Shapechanger Dreams
There’s nothing like prepping for a Christmas visit with the family to keep us busy… and then there’s all the editing I’ve been doing on The...
A Choice of Power
It’s a harmless, playful question: “What superpower would you want?” Or magic talisman, ultimate gadget, or any other way to phrase the one thing you know...
The High Road cover reveal
Getting a cover for a book I've written is well beyond feeling like a "kid in a candy store." For The High Road it was closer to...
Book Covers – Build or Buy and How and Why
Here's a tasty bit of irony: deciding on a book cover for The High Road has been making me dig past my own surface, and ask...
Dark Fantasy and Darker Horror – Common Webs
If dark fantasy and some of the other delightfully edgy shades of storytelling draw on horror (like I said last time), just how many variations does...
Dark Fantasy – or Just Dark Enough
For me, every hour could be Halloween. My mind never goes far from what makes the stories I love work, and for me the ultimate sweet...
Interview with Ciara Ballintyne
What drives a writer, and what drives a story? I've been interviewing Ciara Ballintyne— How do I describe Ciara? She's the creator of three different fantasy...
The Two Laws of Backstory (and why Superman breaks both)
It's one of the hardest moments in writing—knowing that even though you’ve picked a perfect character or an ideal plot complication, you have to write in...
How to be a Writer (a modest theory)
Do I really want to be a writer? (The Unified Writing Field Theory — searchings and findings on what makes stories work) Everyone who ever glanced...
Does your villain need more evil?
Is your story good enough? In fact… you’ve probably been exploring and sweating to make your protagonist more real, more dynamic, and the supporting cast just...
The Prologue Checklist
“What's past is prologue.” –William Shakespeare, The Tempest It’s only natural—you’ve got a powerful story to write, so you open with a prologue. It’s your...