This week I have been plotting out my new novel tentatively titled The Painful Best. In the process of creating characters, tying the plot threads together and creating some terrible red herrings for my readers to follow, I have been going through some new and interesting things to do to my new novel to make it … Continue reading »
Tagged with how to write a novel …
Inspiration Comes from Everywhere
As you all know, I just finished the rough draft of This Broken Earth: Book 1, The U.S. of After and after revising a few times sent it off to my readers for review. This does not mean I stop working. I am simply in a holding pattern while I work up the nerve to start … Continue reading »
Guest Post: “Cycling Grandma” Nothing Like a Bunch of Kids to Teach You Some Stuff
Thanks goes to Lisa over at Cycling Grandmafor this post:My sister Madeline teaches at a small elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland. I had gone to watch her third graders perform a play. An ESOL teacher, she had adapted Sam Swope’s The Araboolies of Liberty Street into a musical, retelling the story using well known melodies. Before … Continue reading »
I Am Interviewed by Collective Compositions
I was blessed to be interviewed for a second time by another blog. This time I was interviewed by Collective Compositions, a blog about writing, art and culture. Her questions were very thought provoking and I hope my answers were of the same caliber.
5 Questions Every Novelist Should Answer
Writing consumes me. It consumes most of my time when I’m not playing with my kids, helping my wife out with all the chores necessary to run a household and working full time. As a teacher, summers are great. I get to spend more time writing, working on the novel, and generally futzing about with … Continue reading »
Serializing My Novel: The Monster Is Too Big to Tame
I have had the release date for my next novel posted in the right hand column of this blog now for several months, but something happened to me yesterday that may push the thing back even further. More story popped into my head. After wincing and shaking my fist at the powers that be who … Continue reading »
Sample Chapter: This Broken Earth
I thought I would post a sample chapter of my latest novel. It is one I have spent some time with and is also one in which the voice is right. I would like to set it up by saying that this novel is told through the voices of all of the characters. Each chapter … Continue reading »
How a Book is Born: A Humorous Yet Truthful Look at Publishing
Yesterday I brought up the point that it is strange how James Patterson completes the herculean task of churning out 12 best sellers in a year. Today I found an info graphic by Mariah Bear that is a humorous satire of what it takes to get published these days, but it is also laden with … Continue reading »
Tolkien’s 5 Tips for Creating Complex Heroes
Tolkien’s letters are rich with information about J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing process. I wrote a post last week about Aragorn being Tolkien’s example of an epic hero, and someone posted: “But Frodo Baggins is the hero of the LOTR trilogy, right?” I would argue that he is not, but only one of three or four characters who together … Continue reading »
Samantha Shannon: The Next J.K. Rowling?
I read an article today about Samantha Shannon who will release a novel entitled The Bone Season this year. She is a literature student at Oxford University and many people say she could be the next billion dollar author, as her book will be one of seven books in a series. She has everything going for … Continue reading »
