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Star Wars classic

Star Wars: Is there a Fast Lane to the Force?

It’s New Year’

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 be more of the kind of

similar scenes

Shapechanger Dreams

There’s nothing like pr

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 T

stakes

A Choice of Power

It’s a harmless, playfu

It’s a harmless, playful question: “What superpower would you want?” Or magic talisman, ultimate gadget, or any other way to phrase the one thin


The High Road cover reveal

Getting a cover for a bo

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 Christmas m


Book Covers – Build or Buy and How and Why

Here’s a tasty bit

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 some hard questio

Horror castle

Dark Fantasy and Darker Horror – Common Webs

If dark fantasy and some

If dark fantasy and some of the other delightfully edgy shades of storytelling draw on horror (like I said

Dark fantasy zombie hand

Dark Fantasy – or Just Dark Enough

For me, every hour could

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 spot of

Ciara Ballintyne

Interview with Ciara Ballintyne

What drives a writer, and

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 di

Backstory failure

The Two Laws of Backstory (and why Superman breaks both)

It’s one of the har

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 w


How to be a Writer (a modest theory)

Do I really want to be a

Do I really want to be a writer? (The Unified Writing Field Theory — searchings and findings on what makes storie

Villains - why so serous

Does your villain need more evil?

Is your story good enough

Is your story good enough? In fact… you’ve probably been exploring and sweating to make your protagonist more real, more dynamic, and the suppo


The Prologue Checklist

“What’s past is p

“What's past is prologue.” –William Shakespeare, The Tempest   It’s only natural—you’ve got