A desperate bid to rediscover creativity
Leather-bound journals, solid-gold pens, walnut writing desks, premium beer, single-malt Scotch, filet mignon, French wine, Cuban cigars, fast cars, faster women, private jets, beach-front villas, luxury yachts, high-stakes gambling, death-defying feats, life and death situations—the daily life of a writer.
I have a new story, The Sacrifice of Pawns, coming out in a new anthology! Clan Chronicles: Tales From Plexis - Twenty-three new stories explore new corners of Julie Czerneda's Clan Chronicles universe in an anthology that brings readers into the lives of the alien inhabitants of one of the sci-fi series's most memorable locations.… Continue reading Clan Chronicles: Tales From Plexis
Ta da! The cover for Tales from Plexis is in my possession and I can finally post it. I’m excited to have a story, "The Sacrifice of Pawns", in this book and to be in such good company with some excellent writers. The book itself will be published this December. You can read about the… Continue reading Tales from Plexis has a cover!
Cleaning up some spam and performing some admin work on the blog, I came across comments on old posts from when this was originally hosted on LiveJournal (it was a different internet epoch then). Out of curiosity, I followed the links from some of those commenters back to LiveJournal and was surprised that a number of… Continue reading Absent friends and time for reflection
Let’s talk about the fantasy of the “writer’s lifestyle.” Most writers and most readers are familiar with the basics: the writer is typically an educated person of modest ba… Source: Let's Talk About the Fantasy of the Writer's Lifestyle | Literary Hub
I had occasion on my writing getaway in Northern Ontario to watch Wonder Boys again. I’ve probably seen it about five or six times. Each time I find I identify with Michael Douglas’ character, Grady Tripp. No, I haven’t been involved with a coverup involving a dead dog, or Marylin Monroe’s stolen jacket. It’s to do… Continue reading Wonder Boys and me
After a toast to the muse, I spent most of yesterday writing and was able to complete a scene for something new.
Fan fiction can be a term used as a derogatory tag for shaming some writers. But it needn't be. There are dozens of media tie-ins published annually Media tie-ins are like fan fiction stories for which the author is paid by the rights holders; i.e., Star Trek novels, Star Wars novels, etc. I'm finding fan… Continue reading Fan Fiction
This is a short entry because it's getting late and I should shower and get to bed soon. I'm only getting to this after walking the dog, a day at the office, making my girls' dinner (warming up dinner really), driving the dad taxi for one daughter, walking the dog, spending time with my other… Continue reading Balancing it all
At this stage, ideas for stories, characters, and settings are still rare and precious things that flit through the cave of my mind and are gone if I don’t catch them immediately. At this point though, most of the ideas I’ll probably catch (to stick with the analogy) are probably not the highest quality. What… Continue reading A dearth of ideas
It's Easter morning and while I had our new dog out for a walk at the crack of dawn, we spotted a rabbit. He, of course, pulled and pulled wanting nothing other than to go after it. The timing of seeing a rabbit on Easter morning gave me the inspiration for a story, so after our… Continue reading Oscar and the Easter Bunny
Dispatches from Obscurity 