I found out earlier today that I sold my story “Take One for the Road” to ANALOG. Â This is my 3rd professional sale, and my first to one of the “big three” and it has made this an incredibly exciting day. Â I feel ill-equipped to describe just how thrilled I am to have a story…
I’ve recently discovered another bonus of the Kindle–which I have been using now for well over a year: samples! Prior to having a Kindle, my book-buying behavior followed 2 possible pathways: Rush off to bookstore, browse for something that piqued my interest, and purchase on the hopes that I would like it. I rarely had…
Last night, I decided which story I would tell in my second attempt at writing a novel. I was debating between two ideas: the first is a kind of period piece set in the early 1970s; the second is a time travel story. I’m super-excited about the second idea, but the amount of research it…
I just found out today that on November 23, the third book in Edmund Morris’ biographical trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel Roosevelt, Â is being released. I read the first book, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt in December 2001, and read the second book, Theodore Rex in February 2002. Both books were extraordinarily well-written and I…
I have been thinking a lot about this in preparation for my second attempt at writing my first novel: which is supposed to illustrate the story arc for a novel. Fantasy novelist David B. Coe has a lot to say on this subject here. When I write short stories, I generally don’t worry about the…
This is one of the most remarkable novels of any kind that I have ever read, and a truly stunning piece of time-travel/historical/science fiction. I started reading Doomsday Book because I’d read Connie Willis’s Blackout earlier in this year and was anxiously awaiting All Clear. I knew that DOOMSDAY BOOK was a Hugo and Nebula winning and I knew…
Kelly finds it amusing that the first thing I do upon arriving home from work is rush off to the mailbox to check for any mail. Â I’ve tried to explain to her that writers live for the mail, but I’m not quite sure she gets it. Granted, there aren’t a whole lot of science fiction…
Procrastinating just slightly before I wrote tonight, I cleaned my desk. Â Here is the annotated results (click on the image for a larger view). Â And despite the procrastination, I managed to get in 550 words on the current work-in-progress, my 6th story of the year.
More than three years ago, I began the process of re-reading my complete set of SCIENCE FICTION AGE magazines and commenting on each issue. Â I managed to make through the first 8 issues before I became too busy to continue. Â But I have always wanted to continue through the rest of the issues in the…
Today’s announcement of the upcoming release of Scrivener 2.0 gives me a good excuse to write about my experiences with this invaluable tool for writers. There are literally scores of positive reviews of Scrivener available online, and for good reason: Â it is an outstanding piece of software that allows a writer to focus on his…
In light of the Hugo Awards this weekend, a few reading lists that might be of interest to others: Hugo award-winning novels that I have read Nebula award-winning novels that I have read Campbell award-winning novels that I have read Hugo and Nebula award-winning novels that I have read And just so people can be…
Yesterday I began the process of upgrading my work laptop to Windows 7. Â This was a necessary evil for various upcoming projects. Â While in my younger days, virtually every piece of software on my computer was beta, these days I am resistant to upgrades because they are so intrusive. Â It takes me nearly 2 days…