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Interviewer: So, you’ve finished your ninth novel. What’s it about? Me: It’s about teens on the autism spectrum who discover time travel. Interviewer: (hissing and arching back) Whoa, whoa, whoa! Haven’t you ever heard of double mumbo-jumbo? Me: This isn’t double mumbo-jumbo. Interviewer: (narrowing eyes) How why not? Me: How why not? Is that English?Continue reading “Cohesion and Double Mumbo Jumbo in “Hollyweird Needs””

SM (Snarky Muse): Why so glum? Me: I’m an Indie writer with marketing blues. Someone’s got to sell the stuff I write, and the family cat (now licking its butt on the windowsill with an impressive leg extension) isn’t exactly volunteering.  SM: So, it’s all up to you.  Me: Yeah, but I get distracted. First, IContinue reading “Contrast, Pacing and Secrets in Project Purple”

Me: I have to finish my ninth book, but this one is hard. I think all this alone time is starting to get to me. Snarky Muse (SM): What do you mean alone time? You’ve got me—I’m your inspirational muse. Me: I still feel alone. I’m starting to think it’s unhealthy. All I seem toContinue reading “Neurosis and Dialog in “Plum Rains on Happy House””

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”