Fiction
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Happy 2021, everybody! Hard to believe we’re already halfway to February, and yet here we are. I’m sure many of you are grappling with writing resolutions—I am, too. Even though I managed to crank out a few short stories last year, my writing output was far lower than I would’ve liked. I have the feeling… Read more
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Stephen King has a famous quote that I suspect a lot of writers hold dear as a milestone to hit in their careers. Mister King said: “If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with… Read more
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A while back I talked about an upcoming anthology that I couldn’t quite discuss yet. Well the time has come! Tangled Tree Publishing has made the announcement, so here we go: A Dark Spring, the first anthology from Tangled Tree, is coming out April 11, featuring my story Early Retirement as well as seven other… Read more
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You know what’s always been a pet peeve of mine? When someone—a writer, a band, anyone—makes a vague pre-announcement to let everyone know they’re going to have another announcement coming soon. I always thought it was either, a) fabricated just to make people think things are happening behind the scenes, or b) some kind of… Read more
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Two of my favorite hobbies have always been people watching and eavesdropping, long before I declared myself a writer and could claim such behavior as “research.” In fact, if I watch people long enough I’ll usually give them names, and sometimes even backstories. For instance: I have a neighbor I named Jim, who I decided… Read more
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A change in my schedule has landed me temporarily on the night shift and allowed me a relatively large amount of free time during the hours when most people are dead to the world. I’m trying to use that time to get back on the proverbial horse in regard to my writing (of which I’ve… Read more
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We all had the “cool” teacher in school—do you remember yours? Mine was Coach Mahr (I think that’s how he spelled it). He taught anatomy and physiology, and was also the track/cross country coach at our high school. He was younger than a lot of the other teachers (probably mid-thirties), and could often be seen… Read more
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A little over a year ago (okay, it was 06/17/13, I got curious and looked it up) I wrote a post proclaiming I’d finished the rough draft of my first novel. I won’t/can’t go back and read it because it will make me cringe too hard, but I remember not feeling the sense of pride… Read more
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I’ve mentioned before my disdain for books that are slow going out of the gate. My patience is short if something doesn’t happen right away. If American Psycho’s reputation hadn’t preceded it, I may have given up on it as I read 40, 50, even 60 pages in and nothing of note had happened yet.… Read more
