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I often mumble incoherently. “Mom says you’re talking to yourself again,” my daughter yells through the door of my small study. I’m an indie writer. I’m self-employed. The mumbling—it’s a staff meeting. Sometimes I have to raise my voice to make a point. But she can hear me in the kitchen, which is directly belowContinue reading “Post #6 — juice and Heart (Moon Dogg)”

Hello everyone! Welcome to my fifth post. I know I said I’d try to write every week, and that was four months ago—but the key word there is try. Posts are time-consuming. I can either finish Book three of Assunta (as I’m doing now) or write a post—because they say it’s a good way toContinue reading “What’s a Cuckoo Colloquium?”

(From December 2019) Happy New Year, everyone, from Kyoto, Japan! I’m writing this blog in the wonderful week between Christmas and New Years, that time of love and cheer. No one knows what day it is. Time doesn’t really exist. Actually, the whole idea of existence is befuddling. So why not celebrate? People rejoice inContinue reading “The Assunta Trilogy”

Snarky Muse: Why are you so mean to your characters? Me: Hey, they face adversity. This is how they grow. This is what makes them interesting. I want to write about characters and stories that captivate me. Usually, they come from some amalgam of people or events that have impacted my world; people I’ve envied,Continue reading “Character vs. Story”

My stories start out as ordinary beans. I like to think of them as such. I don’t know what I have, but I’m compelled to water these beans. Shoots then grow into stems and my beanstalk matures. Sometimes the stems die; the story loses life. Then I travel along my beanstalk and find new stemsContinue reading “First Drafts—Magic Beans or Doodoo?”

Snarky Muse: Your opening needs revision. There’s no way to be ‘very first’. It’s not a matter of degree. First is first. Maybe you’d better reconsider this blog thing. I will very much not. And now for a joke: Three guys are sitting at a bar. #1: “…Yeah, I make $150,000 a year after taxes.”Continue reading “My Very First Post”