#amwriting
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Crossing the (genre) streams
The Nov/Dec 2021 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine featured one of my short stories–“The Debtor,” a crime story set during Christmastime in New York City. (I don’t know what it is about New York City that has inspired me to base all of my crime fiction stories here–maybe it was one too many Law & Order marathons–but here you go and there you have it.) It’s a significant publication for me, not only because of the publication itself (EQMM has been publishing award-winning mystery/crime fiction for 80+ years), but because crime fiction is not my usual genre. And I am almost more proud of that than for the accomplishment…
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On the other side of our long, dark winter
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On the other side of our long, dark winter
Note: This is part 2 of this post series. Read Part 1, “Writing through a pandemic,” here. All the weeks and months of anxious mulling over the Ullr story hadn’t changed my mind about which party and which character I’d center it on. I still loved the opening lines, but I knew the happy-jolly fun romp tone was gone. And that was okay. I didn’t need to write a fun story. I just needed to write a story with a party in it. If there’s anything that I’ve learned as a writer, it’s that as a discovery writer, I need to trust my process. I’m not the type of person…
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Crossing the (genre) streams
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Writing through a pandemic
Usually, when I release a new story, I like to sit back and let readers experience the story for themselves without much set-up. Sure, I’ll write a blurb to let you know what the story is about so that you can decide up front if it’s the type of story you like to read, but I don’t set many expectations beyond that because I don’t want to bias your experience. The latest story I just released though… this one is different, in so many ways. First, some context. I knew I needed a write a story for this anthology a long, long time ago. I was given plenty of time…
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Writing to “The End”
I cut my novel-writing teeth on NaNoWriMo, as I’m sure a lot of us have. Before that, I’d written short stories and poems galore, but had never actually attempted to finish a whole novel. (Starts, though … starts I had down pat. I’d started plenty of novels.) NaNo taught me how to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It taught me that no matter how busy the day got, I’d better put my butt in that chair and crank out some words — any words — or I could kiss my 50k goal goodbye. It taught me various and creative ways to triumph over my supernaturally strong Internal Editor and…
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“Writing Enchanting Prose” Workshop – Lessons Learned From David Farland
If you’ve never heard of fantasy author David Farland or taken one of his workshops, you may want to start Googling now. Or I’ll save you the trouble: visit My Story Doctor and sign up for one of his classes or workshops — particularly his “Writing Enchanting Prose” workshop, a 5-day intensive that he conducts live with a class of ~10 students. At the very least, sign up for his #WritingTips newsletter. It’s been 20 years since I last workshopped in a formal environment. While I loved earning my degree at UCSD’s literature and writing department and their courses were fantastic, Farland’s class was hands-down the best for practical application.…
