All Blog Posts
Time Writing
Sunday May 20, 2018
First, I want to thank Risto for resurrecting this site. I've always been crap at keeping a written record - blog, journal, you name it. So when the old Apheleia.net went belly up, I thought that was a fairly strong sign that all journaling and blogging efforts on my part were ultimately futile. Second, I want to share a funny text I sent Risto last year…
Ram Skull Garden
Monday September 19, 2016
I was lucky to get exposed to clay when I did. Going through a paramedic training program at a community college had its benefits. I was luckier still that the man who taught my two semesters of ceramics - for an art requirement I did not fully appreciate at the time - was a master potter. He was never impressed with a single product, and told us what his…
A Small Shaking Room
Friday July 22, 2016
I've gotten around to reading Toffler. Strange that I ordered his three most famous books and two weeks later he slips his mortal tether. Future Shock is good - reading his predictions of the future without concepts of the Internet, HIV, 9/11 - a few years changes everything. Future Shock is slow going between the reading I have to do for school, the…
A Celebrated Return
Tuesday May 31, 2016
When you spend all of your perceived time jumping from one activity to another that you feel has to be done, you lose something. For me, it has been the satisfaction of creating and reading. I get great pleasure from both - but only when they are not in competition with activities that I have to do or that need to be done. Let's be honest though - I work…
Writing About The Tough Stuff
Saturday April 23, 2016
So - we finally got around to solving some technical problems with the blog and we're operational again. There was no real hurry to fix it - school and work are pretty nuts right now, and it feels like a struggle to even make time for writing, let alone blog writing. It's been a rough few weeks around here for my community. Two days ago the body of a…
It's All About Factions
Friday January 30, 2015
If you are writing a work of epic fiction, there is a strong possibility that politics and diplomacy will play a major role in your work. Even if you wouldn't call your work epic, some mention of politics is probably made somewhere in your writing. Politics, governing bodies, diplomats, politicians, and relationships between factions all fill out the…
Scrivener And Dropbox *Redux*
Friday October 24, 2014
I would like to start out the redux version of this story with a huge thank you to the folks at Scrivener for setting me straight (and being gentle about it.) Scrivener has features that allow it to be used with syncing services like Dropbox, and the team at Scrivener encourages the use of those features! So I also apologize for indicating that this was…
Why You Should Do NaNoWriMo... Once.
Tuesday October 14, 2014
If you aspire to write or you have a friend that writes, then I would wager money that you have have heard of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Facebook and Twitter have been buzzing for a couple of months now about the event’s approach. Every November writers of all stripes are supposed to embark on a one month quest: write a 50,000 word novel…
World Building Part II: Intro to Lore
Friday October 10, 2014
If you are at all like me, you like enormous, deep, rich fiction. That does not necessarily mean long, not by any means, but it means that the world the creator made has a high resolution. The stories behind the scenes of the main plot are written. The history of the place the main characters inhabit: all accounted for. Lore is an integral part of world…
SciFi Writing Craft III: Finding Your Voice
Sunday September 28, 2014
There is a lot of wonderful information out on the web and in books on how to be a good writer. There are also university courses, workshops, magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, and blogs that will teach you how to be a better writer and how to develop your own style. The frustrating part about most of these sources is that they all seem to say the same…
Writer's Block
Wednesday September 24, 2014
So this is a test and an exercise all at once. Something to get my fingers typing and my brain working - preferably together in a shared goal of actually writing something. So write I shall. Perhaps not my best writing, but words on a virtual page nonetheless and that has got to count for something. Bear with me dear reader, this is not going to be a…
Grit Vs. Gratuitous
Wednesday August 13, 2014
I am currently working on a short story in the same universe as my full length novel that deals with human / sentient trafficking and child rape. Pretty brutal stuff, and a lot of writers will not touch it with a pole let alone a pen. So a couple of questions naturally follow from this: why are you writing about such dark subject matter, and how are you…
SciFi Writing Craft II: Putting the “Hard” in Hard SciFi
Tuesday August 12, 2014
Ben Bova wrote a book about writing science fiction called The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells . I bought and read the whole thing, along with several other how to manuals for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers trying to break into the traditional publishing market. Let me say one sentence on traditional publishing: you're probably…
SciFi Writing Craft I: Omit Needless Words
Monday August 11, 2014
I cannot emphasize subtlety and economy of words while world building enough. Strunk and White very famously wrote “omit needless words,” as one of the most important aspects of good composition, and in science fiction this rule is often forgotten. In visual media - video games, movies, art - we pick up on visual cues that are artfully placed in order to…
World Building Part I: Writing Female Characters
Sunday August 10, 2014
What better way to start writing about writing than to jot down a few thoughts about writing female characters, especially in science fiction. Stay with me here, I don’t think I’m going to blow any minds - especially those of ardent science fiction fans, but this is important stuff. Women don’t get fair representation in science fiction for the most part…
Wow, much blog, so sci fi.
Saturday August 9, 2014
Ugh, writing first posts and introductions are the worst. Writing to someone you’ve known for a long while, or at least well enough to know they’ll listen - that’s easy! That’s also the exact reason it’s so difficult writing your first book or short story, and putting it into the public sphere. I’ve been grinding away at my first novel for about 3.5 years…