I was out with some of the guys from my speculative fiction writing group the other night (and let me tell you how lovely it is to belong to a group where everyone writes science fiction and fantasy, though the
The Importance of Antagonists
Someone on Twitter the other day was asking the Twitterverse at large whether or not their protagonists had antagonists. Well, I certainly hope so. What drives story? Conflict. And what causes conflict? Having obstacles that your main character/protagonist needs to
Visualizing Characters
You know how you go to watch the movie-version of a book and you’re like, “This character doesn’t look anything like what I thought they would?” That rarely ever happens to me. I don’t know why, but when reading, I
Working With Mythology When No One Agrees On Anything: Angel Mythology
How’s that for a mouthful of a title? I’m rather proud of it. So, my book Shards, coming out in December, has a lot of mythology mixed into it. The main mythology is Biblical, specifically relating to angels, so I
Mental Breaks and Why They’re Necessary
First of all, I realized yesterday that we should have discussed The House of Many Ways last Thursday, and I apologize for totally spacing it. I blame my deadline, but even so, I should have taken that into account when
When the System Breaks Down
We’ve talked in the past about compartmentalization–where you somehow separate what you’re working on from other things you’re working on to train your brain to get into the right frame of mind faster. Normally this is excellent. But, as you
Death to Writer’s Block!
So, my friends, I am making my way through the edits of an urban fantasy novel of mine that’s being published this December. It’s due to my editor on August 1st. (Don’t remind me of what day it is. Believe
Fantasy Race Series: Vampires
This week in our series, we’re going to explore vampires. Love them or hate them, prefer them sparkly or deadly, they’ve been around for a long time and no doubt will be around for a lot longer. Here to tell
The Fantasy Race Blog Post Series and Miscellaneous
First off, Squiders, an announcement: starting Tuesday, I’m going to be running a series of posts (on subsequent Tuesdays) about fantasy races. I’m really excited about this one, because I’ve got the posts from the people who know the best:
Why Don’t Writing Groups Write?
So, back when I lived in California, I had a lovely group of people that I would write with. We’d go to a coffee shop, get a drink, maybe get a pastry (I am partial to chocolate pumpkin bread. Mmm),
