Month: January 2011

  • My Vacation in the Golden Age is about to commence

    18 Jan 2011 » 1 min read

    There was no mail yesterday thanks to the federal holiday. Last night there was an ice storm which kept us home from work, and all day long I’ve been worrying that the mail would not arrive. But the mail truck just drove up and the mailman delivered the one package I’ve been waiting for in…

  • Anatomy of a story read-through

    18 Jan 2011 » 5 min read about Writing & Publishing

    This afternoon I finished my read through of Part 1 of my NaNoWriMo novel. The piece was 35,500 words long. I read through it on my Kindle and made more than 165 notes as I worked through it. One of the most valuable things I’ve got from the writers groups to which I belong is…

  • Taking advantage of an ice-day

    18 Jan 2011 » 1 min read about Personal & Family

    My obliviousness to the news apparently runs to the weather as well. Kelly mentioned something about inclement weather last night, but I didn’t think much of it. When I went to bed last night, I could hear the ice on the windows. But I got up this morning, showered, and got ready for work. I…

  • Managing my writing life with Evernote

    18 Jan 2011 » 3 min read about reviews, Writing & Publishing

    I’ve been using Evernote for closed to 2 months now and I have been very impressed with it. I originally started to use it as part of my desire to go paperless at home (I’d already done so, more or less, in the day job). What I have found is that it is not only…

  • This week in writing

    17 Jan 2011 » 1 min read about Writing & Publishing

    Let’s play the game “can Jamie really do what he says he’ll do?” By bedtime Sunday, then: Write the first half (~8,000 words) of “Rescue” Read and critique two first chapters of novels for the Arlington Writers Group Start on my vacation in the Golden Age of Science Fiction Write that blog post on Evernote…

  • Using the Kindle to read story drafts

    17 Jan 2011 » 3 min read about kindle, Technology & Gadgets, Writing & Publishing

    My evolution of story draft reading has come a long way in the last year. A year ago, I’d print out my first drafts, mark them up in red ink and then head into my second draft. Then I tried reading the draft within Scrivener and that worked pretty well, too, but it was a…

  • Vacation anticipation

    16 Jan 2011 » 2 min read about Personal & Family

    Upon my office desk are currently stacked in various piles, 30 issues of Astounding ranging from September 1939 through December 1950. But the one of which I am in desperate need has not yet arrived, and I am just about shaking in anticipation. The July and August 1939 issues were among the first that I…

  • The Business of Science Fiction for Best Related Book Hugo

    15 Jan 2011 » 3 min read

    There are a few good “related” books out there this year, but I want to make the case why I think one in particular is most deserving of a Hugo award: and that one is Mike Resnick’s and Barry N. Malzberg’s The Business of Science Fiction (McFarland). The book is a collection of 26 of…

  • Full time job, full time dad, part time writer

    15 Jan 2011 » 3 min read about Writing & Publishing

    Someone asked today that given my full time job, and the fact that I am a full time dad, how did I find the time to make 3 blog posts in a single day and when do I get my real writing done. The question demands a better answer than I gave in the comments…

  • Daddy, where do stories come from?

    15 Jan 2011 » 4 min read about Writing & Publishing

    I figured it was about time for me to write about my answer to that age-old question, “Where do you get your ideas?” Ideas for me are, quite honestly, a dime a dozen. I have no problem coming up with them. I find them just about everyone: reading science magazines like New Scientist and Scientific…

  • What’s your sign?

    14 Jan 2011 » 1 min read

    (…Climbs onto soapbox…) I have been so busy with other stuff that newsworthy items have almost gone completely by the board. I didn’t learn of the events in Arizona, for instance, until a day after they happened. I had no idea the President made a speech the other night until I saw someone mention it…

  • What I will be doing this weekend

    14 Jan 2011 » 1 min read about Personal & Family

    According to my calendar, there is nothing on the books for this weekend, which means I’ll be attempting to turn my attention to one thing: Working on the new novelette, “Rescue”. Tune in Sunday night to see how I did.