Apr 30, 2013

One of the unforeseen benefits of reading Nate Silver’s book, The Signal and the Noise, was that it encouraged me to take a look at the way I was consuming information. As somebody working in marketing, I live on data. We need to know what our target market wants, how they talk, where they go (so we can market to them there), when they click, why they click,...

Apr 29, 2013

If you’re a spec fic writer, you’ve probably heard of Blue Heaven, a novel writing workshop/retreat that’s been running for 10 years now.  I’d never been to Blue Heaven, but was familiar with the format. What I appreciated at this particular point in my career is that, unlike Wellspring last year, this one wasn’t solely a workshop...

Apr 5, 2013

I’ve been reading a lot of responses to the “deal” proposed by Night Shade Books and Skyhorse/Start Publishing, and as pretty much everything has been leaked every which fucking way (kicked off, no less, by a stupidly inaccurate and ill-timed Tweet by one of Night Shade’s own owners, which should surprise no one used to dealing with them). Myself and...

Feb 21, 2013

The trouble with getting out of the fiction writing routine is figuring out how to get into it again. I’ve talked before about my latest book depression, and though I’m happy to report I’ve come out of the weeds of my deadlines and am writing fiction again, it’s a funny stop-start process, this remembering how to write. That’s not to say, obviously,...

Feb 3, 2013

After today’s kettle bell workout, I lay on the floor for awhile just staring at the fan and the whirling wooden dragon I have hanging from it. Not because I was all that physically tired, just because I didn’t feel like thinking or doing anything else for awhile. I tried, in vain, to let my mind wander to a big day job project in the hopes that I would be...

Jan 24, 2013

So I have this terrible fear that all this work won’t be enough. I realize that I’m in my 30’s now, which is, historically speaking, the prime time folks have to start collecting and putting away cash for the future. Statistically speaking, I’ve got about 15 years less of old age than other folks (chronic illness and all that), but I come from a...

Jan 17, 2013

I was recently at an event at the day job and got the question I get there on occasion, “So, when are you going to quit and go off and write novels full time?” This generally results in me laughing hysterically. We have a very skewed view of how much money novelists really make, which is why I like to contribute to the yearly writing income...