Back of the Envelope

I finally got around to watching John Carter last week.  It's time in the theater was awfully brief, and I didn't get around to seei...

Kristin and I went camping this past weekend.  We pitched a tent, cooked a meal over coals (and then figured out that it takes forever to co...

As I mentioned last week , I have a book coming out soon, and I've been spending some time thinking about the release party. Of course I...

This past week, I signed my first book contract. Yes, someone actually paid me to publish my book. The book in question is Fire , which yo...

Kristin and I spent this past weekend visiting her brother and his family in Alberta, including three nephews whom I was meeting for the fir...

I've decided to start reading, and reviewing, some of the novels available on Amazon.com's Kindle Lending Library.  This allows Amaz...

The Avengers came out this past weekend, and I talked Kristin into seeing it for our date night on Friday.  We had already seen all the lea...

Doc Rampage tells a heartwarming story of a boy, his dog, and his cut-anything shears.  Go read .

Not everyone understood the technical issues discussed in last week's post .  I apologize for that, and if there are any specific questi...

Do fantasy writers need to know anything about quantum physics? At last year's World Fantasy, I attended a panel on magic systems, where...

It's been a while since I've blogged anything.  I've been very busy writing, but that's really more of an excuse than anythi...

Once again, I'm going to talk about twist endings that worked.  Once again, there'll be spoilers, so I'll add some space. . ...

Last week , I talked about how to make stories unpredictable.  This week, I want to talk about some stories that did it right and really sur...

I'll admit.  I find most fantasy and science fiction short stories rather predictable.   This is especially a problem with shorter stori...

I've never been in a top ten list before, so I was happy to see that " Her Majesty's Guardian " has appeared in the editor...

There are a lot of hours in a day.  That's something that isn't so obvious when you commute over an hour each way to work, stay ther...

In preparation for the Avengers movie coming out this year, my wife and I have been watching all the "prequels"--the Marvel superh...

While revising my novel these past couple of weeks, I've come to realize just how badly high school English damaged my writing technique...

My iPhone died the other day. When I took it out of my pocket I noticed that it was hot, but when I tried pressing the home button, nothing ...

I honestly thought it had been only a week since my last post, but novel revisions create a time distortion field, and it's really been ...