Fractured Fragment Friday: Sometimes You Do What You Must Without “Purr Mission” and Ask Forgiveness Later

Major Tom’s dander is up. His cub is dying of the Morient Virus, and this cat knows that the Ramses Empire’s sworn enemies are responsible (the deceitful feline Baastards!), but bureaucats have ordered him not to go to their planet to recover the antidote. Well, it’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask purrmission. Ready for heroism, adventure, space, spies, and lives in the balance? Read “Purr Mission.”
Purr Mission is a FREE eBook, the first story in the Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire series. Continue reading →

Writing Wednesday: How To Make A Series Go Forward

I’ve never done this with novels before – I HAVE written (and still AM writing) two short fiction series , but they’re pretty easy for me. Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire and Detective Jimmy Delaney sequels come to me pretty easily, but the sheer length of novels seems to create exponential levels of effort. Continue reading →

Fractured Fragment Friday: In Swordsmaster, a Rare Bright-Eye Finds a Talking Sword, But Is He Really the Sword’s Master?

Well, Fractured Fragment Friday has made it through all my non-series story collections. Before I restart the cycle again, we will feature my one completed novel: Swordsmaster (book 2 should release by year’s end, book 3 next year.) I joke that Swordsmaster was forty years in the making, but it’s not quite a joke. In … Continue reading →

Writing Wednesday: Knowing Where You’re Going (If You’re Lucky)

Last Week’s Goals All blog posts were up as scheduled. My newest story collection completed its release weekend. Speaking of Spell Casters and Space Aliens consists of eleven stories, two of which were honorable mentions in the Writers of the Future contest, and another two appeared in other publications. Links to it are on my … Continue reading →

Meandering Monday about What We (Or It) Choose (Or Are Allowed) To See

It’s been obvious for a while that all of us are functioning with a limited view on the outside world. Each of us is in our own information bubble, and what we see is influenced by our own biases, those of people we know, and whatever “news” sources we use (and those “news” sources have … Continue reading →

Fractured Fragment Friday: Encounter with Strange Life Form Leaves a “Lasting Impression”

This is the official release day for my collection Speaking of Spell Casters and Space Aliens. Today’s Fractured Fragment Friday features another of the collection’s eleven stories. “Lasting Impression” came into my mind with the image of a strange creature fading into the woods. I thought it might be a good origin story for Sheriff … Continue reading →

Writing Wednesday: What Is Your Reason for Being (a Writer)?

Last Week’s Goals All posts were… posted. My newest story collection is ready for release in two days. Speaking of Spell Casters and Space Aliens consists of eleven stories, two of which were honorable mentions in the Writers of the Future contest, and another two appeared in other publications. The book is available as a … Continue reading →

Meandering Monday about My Failing Autopilot

My autopilot is failing me. We all have autopilots, don’t we? That way we have of doing simple or repetitive things without having to devote too much of our grey matter to the task, so we can pay attention to things around us that aren’t familiar, so we can deal with potential dangers (whether from … Continue reading →

Fractured Fragment Friday: What is the Proper Etiquette When a Witch Invites a Demon to Dinner for “Date Night”?

We have one more week before the official release of Speaking of Spell Casters and Space Aliens (towards the end of this post I’ll tell you how to get the eBook FOR FREE.) For the next couple of Fractured Fragment Fridays I’ll continue featuring one of the collection’s eleven stories. “Date Night” gained me my … Continue reading →

Writing Wednesday: How to Receive (and Give) Criticism

Depending where you are on the empathy vs. narcissism spectrum, you are either going to prefer giving or receiving criticism. Me, I think I like both giving and receiving equally, although it’s a little harder to put my work out there for criticism than to offer to critique someone else’s work (of course, when I critique, I then worry about whether my critique is good enough instead of my work, so read into that what you will…) Continue reading →