• Learning From Donald Trump

    In this season of hotly contested political races, including the Presidential one, I think it’s interesting to sit back and try to learn something from all the commotion that surrounds them.  I’m speaking here of what writers can learn from the current Republican nominee, Donald Trump.  I’ll leave the political and economic and foreign policy and…

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  • Words To Watch

    Readers of this blog are probably aware that I’ve written three science-fiction novels, though they haven’t been published yet.  I’m still trying to get an agent or editor interested in the first one, as a way of selling the whole trilogy.  That has taken time, and I’ve tried my hand at other things, notably short…

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  • Teaching Writing

    I’ve noticed on Facebook recently some postings from at least one (possibly more) famous author(s) that are essentially advertisements for writing programs that purport to help the person who responds to the ad learn to write novels like the famous author.  Some even say “I’ll teach you to write like me.”  I’m a little concerned…

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  • Heinlein’s Rules

    I had an occasion a few days ago to revisit on the web Robert Heinlein’s rules of writing, and to reconsider as to how I felt about them.  For those who are not familiar with the rules, laid down by the iconic sci-fi author, here they are. You must write.  (Of course.) You must finish what…

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  • It’s Got To Be “Right”

    Over the past several years, beginning in late 2011, I’ve been sending out queries to literary agents around the country, trying to persuade one of them to take on my first novel and sell it to a publisher.  (This is what most people refer to as the “traditional” method of getting published.)  So far I’ve…

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  • Import

    I’m going to stick my neck out here and try and define a characteristic of fiction that is, at least to me, new.  I’ve written a few short stories as well as three novels, but when I finished a short story of about 4600 words a few weeks back, and read through it several times,…

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  • Be It Ever So Humble . . .

    What’s the hardest part of writing for a writer, especially an unpublished one?  The hardest part for me is staying humble. I haven’t found it particularly difficult to force myself to sit down and write every day.  I enjoy the process—of putting words down on a computer screen, of rearranging them to better say what I want;…

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