Well, Jason had accepted that Vampires were real... Chapter 3: Contingency Planning "What in the world are you doing?" Sylvie asked. I put down the loading kit. "Preparing. I figure that if I'm going to deal with a vampire, I'd better have something other than conventional ammo." She picked up a cartridge. "Silver? I thought I read somewhere that you actually couldn't make silver bullets; something about balance?" "I heard that too, but it's a silly statement on the face of it. Lead's softer and just as [ Continue reading... ]
Paradigms Lost: Chapter 2
May 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Finding a dead man on your doorstep does take a lot of time in paperwork... Finding a body on the doorstep does keep you up with paperwork... Chapter 2: Picture Imperfect I got back to Wood's Information Service at 2:45. The cops were gone but one of those wide yellow tapes was around the entire area. Damn. I went to the pay phone on the corner (lucky there still are any… pretty soon I'll have to get a cell phone myself), dialed the station, asked for Lieutenant Reisman. I was in luck. She was still in. [ Continue reading... ]
Paradigms Lost: Foreword and Chapter 1
May 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Here begins my "snippeting" of Paradigms Lost, my vastly expanded and revised version of my first novel, Digital Knight. This will continue until the e-ARC of the novel is released by Baen, probably in late August or early September. Foreword Paradigms Lost is a greatly expanded edition of Digital Knight, my first published work. It is not just a polishing and slight reworking of Digital Knight – indeed, in many areas I have tried not to touch the writing overmuch, as I don't want to damage the "flavor" that made it [ Continue reading... ]
Music and Writing
April 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment
One of the key elements of the way in which I write is that I must have music playing. Quiet – as in dead silence – intrudes on my consciousness. I write best when I have sound that helps evoke emotions in me, so that I can try to evoke emotion in my words. This has naturally evolved into a habit of constructing a "soundtrack" for my books as I go along. In many cases the soundtrack becomes quite detailed, with a dozen or even two dozen tracks each representing a character, piece of the setting, or event. This helps me keep [ Continue reading... ]
The Mechanics of (My) Writing
April 23, 2014 By Leave a Comment
I often get asked various questions about how I write, what my approach to writing is, how long it takes,and so on. This piece tries to cover all of these questions. The simplest way to describe how I write is the wiseass version: I sit down, open my computer, bring up the file, and write until I run out of story or time. Naturally, it's not quite so simple as that. If I know what I'm writing – that is, I have the plotline clear in my head and I know the characters and so on – it can be about that simple. For the [ Continue reading... ]
Musings on “Internet Piracy”
April 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment
I have something of an unusual perspective on intellectual property infringement of the type that's called "piracy". First, I put that word in quotes because I dislike it. It is an inadequate and inaccurate description of the problem which both romanticizes and exaggerates it. The word "piracy" in modern ears usually (especially in the sheltered civilized areas where real pirates, who still exist in some of the seas of the world, don't prowl) evokes a dashing, romantic imagery of swashbuckling action and cheerful [ Continue reading... ]
What is an Editor Good For?
February 21, 2014 By Leave a Comment
A lot of people who are not published authors don't have a clear idea of exactly what an editor does, or why they're needed by an author. In addition, there's a lot of stories out there about horrible things editors do or have done to people and their stories. This is becoming a VASTLY more important issue because so many people are going the self-published route and really, honestly don't understand why they might need an editor at all. I want to talk about my own experiences and views of editing, garnered over the [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
February 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." My last post reminded me that I hadn't yet posted anything about the original -- an oversight that I now rectify! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man of wide experience and education – a doctor who served on both a Greenland whaler and a steamship on a voyage to western Africa, a scientist with a keen sense of justice, a man fascinated with the unknown and unknowable. Though he had many notable achievements in his [ Continue reading... ]
Hugo and other Award eligible stuff, and general update…
January 4, 2014 By Leave a Comment
First, a combination of the holidays and being quite sick (with an annoying gut issue called mesenteric lymphadenitis) has caused me to be unable to contribute properly to my usual postings. I apologize for this and hope to be able to resume shortly. I am now about 1/3 of the way through the sequel to Phoenix Rising, currently titled Phoenix in Shadow, and have started a couple other things. Now, as the year has just ended, it's time to fantasize about getting awards. Yes, I know I don't write the sort of stuff likely to get [ Continue reading... ]
Demons of the Past: Revelation — Prologue and Chapter One
December 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
For Christmas I think I'll give you all a little treat -- the beginning of a space opera trilogy currently being shopped around by my agent, titled Demons of the Past. Happy Holidays! ----- Prologue: The Atlantaean Empire was falling. It was a colossal empire, stretching across uncounted millions of worlds from one side of the barred-spiral that would one day be called the Milky Way to the other, one hundred thousand light-years and more under a single, never-changing dynasty for as many years of [ Continue reading... ]
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