T minus 30 days and counting
Talked with the publisher – Fern Brady at Inklings Publishing (https://www.inklingspublishing.com) last week. The book is on track and should be published next month. Pretty excited about the whole thing. We had a long discussion with the editor, Steph Mathieson (https://www.wordgrower.net/) about the title. Solar Prime is a vast solar power facility situated in California’s…Read More
Hot Lava and Quicksand
Saw something online about things that worried you as a kid but turned out to be worth very little anxiety as an adult. Hot lava It was never simply “lava.” It specifically had to be hot lava. Never molten magma, liquified rock, vaporized stone, or the like. Similarly scalding, very warm, lukewarm and tepid were…Read More
First Look – WB
Very minor spoilers. Will Kwan is a second-generation gamer. His first toys were discarded Xbox and PS controllers that he chewed on as his teeth came in. Spark opened when he was six, but the family waited until he was tall enough to participate in all of the quests. By age seven, he had physically…Read More
First Look – Feral Daughter
Spoiler alert. I’m going to do my best to avoid pre-publication spoilers. I’ll give up minor details, as below, that don’t directly impact any of the main plot lines but will stay away from things like Yoda flying. If you’re a purist, you may want to skip to some of the other posts. Here’s the…Read More
Schlock Mercenary’s version of Hemingway’s Rule #1
If you’re a Sci Fi fan and don’t follow Howard Tayler and his web comic, Schlock Mercenary, you’re missing out on good writing, good stories, and Schlock himself. Schlock Mercenary’s Hemingway Rules
Hemingway’s Rules
Hemingway died in 1961. Nearly fifty years ago. His work is still required in most colleges and high schools. I hated his work when I first read The Old Man and the Sea. Don’t remember when I was forced to read it. Then I grew up and read more and realized how great he was. A…Read More
Writing and Critique Groups
It’s hard to get honest feedback. But it’s important. I fall in love with my characters. I know what drives them, what they fear, what they want, and even their favorite ice cream. How much do readers need to know? What’s critical to the story? What’s boring? If only we had a way for writers…Read More
More Gaiman Guidance
Still true. https://t.co/GXOc3wfFVe — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 12, 2020 My first draft of Solar Prime had 160,000 words. That’s over 500 pages. Bit long for a first novel. The version I turned over to the publisher has 102,000. Hope I made it look like I knew what I was doing!
Rules for Writing
Neil Gaiman (neilgaiman.com, @neilhimself) is one of my favorite authors. He wrote American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Anasazi Boys, and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett). I heard an interview with him (maybe about him, and unverified, so consider this as such). In the interview he mentioned that he never shows his first draft to anyone…Read More
Dark matter, dinosaurs, and super-massive black holes
One of the storylines in Solar Prime revolves around the dinosaur extinction event. The quest itself is called KT Crossing in the book. That is a reference to the geological boundary between the Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T) periods. Current theory is that a meteoroid hit Earth where the Chicxulub (CHEEK-shuh-loob) crater is today (Yucatan…Read More