Friday, November 1, 2013

Happy Holidays! I’m fairly certain now that Halloween is over, it’s officially “The Holidays.” The people at the mall sure seem to think so…. Anyway, there’s news galore to share:

  • I updated the Starshine Cover Art (and site background). It contains the same elements, but is softer and more ethereal. I know there’s a good bit of empty space in the middle left of the cover; I don’t want to clutter it up, but I do have some ideas for the space. Let me know what you think about the new design!

  • New blog post: Novel Writing Software: A Tool—Not A Crutch

  • Part II of Starshine is a wrap! Here’s a little spoiler-free (which was difficult, since anything which may or may not be occurring in the Metis Nebula is quite spoiler-y) excerpt:

~

“Minister, do you have children?”

“I’m a bachelor, so…not as far as I’m aware of.” He smiled.

Miriam didn’t. “I see. You will not have experienced this yourself then—but like many children, my daughter developed a mind of her own before she was two years old and has never lost it. She stopped taking my advice around the time….” A shadow passed across her face she couldn’t fully disguise.

The security office on Le Grande Retraite was as bright and clean as the rest of the orbital luxury resort. A young lieutenant in a spotless uniform greeted her at the entryway with a salute. “Major Solovy. It’s an honor to meet you.”

She leveled a dismissive glare at him. “This is not a social call, Lieutenant. Take me to my daughter.”

His posture wilted as he stammered out a response. “Y-yes, ma’am. We put her in one of the interview rooms. I, um, gave her a juice. And some popcorn.”

She fell in beside him. “And the young man?”

“Uh, he was of age and no laws had been broken, so we weren’t able to detain him.” He stopped in front of a doorway and glanced at her, then hastily opened the door and stepped back.

Alexis tossed a kernel of popcorn in the air and caught it in her mouth. Her feet were clad in braided flip-flops and kicked up on the desk, legs crossed at the ankle. She was all elbows and knees, half a child and half a woman. Her hair was bound in long pigtails draped over her shoulders and down her chest—strange, they somehow made her look older, not younger. Perhaps it was the sharp, spirited fire in her eyes. David’s eyes.

“Mom. Here to throw me in the brig?”

“I am here to take you home.”

~

As always, drop any comments or questions in the comment box at the bottom of the page!

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Characters: How to Create Them, How to Make Them Real

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Characters: How to Create Them, How to Make Them Real

In an earlier blog post, I talked about how characters should be the central core of a story. Excellent! Now you just need some characters….

In some ways, characters are far more difficult to create than plot. After all, characters are us, and we know all too well how complicated and flawed we are. For a short story, a character can be painted in broad strokes. But if you’re going to write several hundred pages about one, they better be fully-developed, realistic and relatable. They should feel like a real person. More on that in a moment, though.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Part II is a monster; so many moving pieces...and so much fun (for me). FYI, the current layout contains 4 parts; it's possible the end of Part II will be moved out and Parts III and IV combined. It's mainly a question of pacing, and time will tell.

Now, news and updates:

As always, feel free to drop any comments or questions in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

UPDATE: Apologies for the duplicative email from Feedburner (containing updates already in the Newsletter). It shouldn't happen again!  

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Tools, Process and Organization, Oh My!

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Tools, Process and Organization, Oh My!

This post is not about the substance of writing. Rather, it is about how to stay sane while writing, not lose all your painstakingly-created work, and build an environment in which you can craft a coherent, complete story.

Everyone’s approach is different; this happens to be mine. You should use a process which works for you and complements your natural habits. But if you’re serious about embarking on any major project, you do need a process, an organization method and the tools to implement them.

Monday, September 23, 2013

It's been a busy two weeks; unfortunately, much of the work I can't share yet. But here's what I can share:

  • New blog post: Tools, Process and Organization, Oh My!

  • I fixed a few formatting issues on the site; those of you with 16:9 resolutions should be able to see the page quotes now :).

  • Apologies for any duplicated text in the "Updates" email; I'm still fiddling with some of the RSS settings. It will be fixed next update.

  • Part I of Starshine is DONE. In the bag. Until all the revisions when I finish the full draft and go back to the beginning, that is. Here's a teeny little no-context, spoiler-free excerpt:

~

—a flicker…no, an absence, a dark gap in the nebular clouds, caught the corner of Caleb's eye. In a breath he shifted to full alert.

There was no logical explanation for why his senses were instantly hyper-focused and nanobot-aided adrenaline already rushed through his veins—but preternatural instincts was one reason the government paid him a rather generous salary.

He swung around to sweep the area in a broad arc, and came up empty. The sensors detected only the noise Metis radiated. Yet a moment later a well-defined void was distinctly silhouetted against a dense cloud of dust, illuminated by the pale golden glow of the Metis interior. He checked the scans again. Nada.

The sensors told him the region was empty. His eyes told him a different story. His ocular implants strained to zoom in and focus on the distant shadow; he would have a headache later.

He tensed as the silhouette solidified in his vision into the outline of an artificial construct…he’d call it a ship, but….

***

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What Should Be the Foundation of a Story?

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What Should Be the Foundation of a Story?

It’s like the introduction to every “…For Dummies” guidebook: ‘So you want to write a novel—welcome to the club! Being an author must be an awesome job. I mean, you get to work whenever and wherever you want, and mostly you just travel around signing your books, right?’

If only! It’s not enough to just want to “be” a writer. For starters, you need to have a story you want to tell (hopefully more than one, but one is a fine place to begin). Excellent, you can do totally that—all you need to do is come up with a plot and you’ll be set.

Not exactly, it turns out.