Author. Writer. Editor. Fool.
I penned a flash fiction piece last year called “Storms,” a brief war story about a man’s experience on the front lines of World War I. The story is now available at Boston Literary Magazine. Surf over here and give it a read. It’s short. Won’t take you but a few minutes to read. My thanks to editor Robin Stratton, who forced me to take a hard look at the story and pare it back to its most essential elements.
If you hope for writing to be more than a hobby, it’s a good idea to have a good sense for what is and is not good practice when it comes to dealing with editors and agents. Those people will be your doorway into the world of getting paid for your work and having readers who are not friends and family. It’s helpful to know what approaches work and, more importantly, what approaches DON’T. That’s one reason why I pay attention to their blogs. Literary agent Jessica Faust shares a story about a writer who got defensive when she asked for more information about the author’s manuscript. Way to shoot yourself in the foot! I’ve mention being overly defensive before and it’s worth repeating: you…
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Sometimes I get in over my head. My need to fill every square inch of spare time with creative projects too often leads to more stuff than I can do at once. It’s maddening and frustrating and at times a bit overwhelming, yet if I drop one I resent the project I keep for holding me back on the other one. Madness. What am I juggling right now? Take a look: Dystopian Science Fiction novel My current fiction work in progress (WIP), this involves an America healing from a second Civil War, an oppressive caste system that has driven most of the nation to poverty, and a plot to kill millions. I’m about five chapters into the revision process. Eight or nine chapters are written…
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Artist Marcus Kelligrew is providing some exciting art for a traditional superhero story set to appear in my upcoming comic anthology. He’s got such a dynamic style, reminiscent of the action-packed Marvel comics of the 1970s, that I just had to do a story with him. The result was “Whence Comes, Liberty!”, a superhero origin story. We’ve got American soldiers getting amazing powers, cyborg nazis, and loads of action. Below are two panels from the story. They’re not yet inked. When they do, expect them to explode off the page even more than they already do. The anthology remains on target for a mid-summer release.
This was given to me by Stephen Segal of the awesome Weird Tales and I had to share it. If you’ve ever submitted a story or manuscript to a publisher or magazine, you want to read It Came From The Slush Pile. Trust me. Just read it. It’s funny as hell, but you’ll learn something, too. The only gimmick worth having is good writing.