Evolve is a different kind of book for me; I usually don’t read either anthologies or vampire fiction. I’m more of a novel reader and while I enjoy vampire fiction the recent trends in that genre haven’t really struck a chord with me. Still, I think I was fated to read this book. When I first opened it to a random page, the story was taking place in Calgary where I live. That doesn’t happen every day so I picked up the book. I read it cover to cover over the course of a week during my daily commute. Evolve has a nice assortment of 24 short stories from a wide-range of authors including Kelly Armstrong and Tanya Huff as […]
Read moreCategory: Irreverent Muse
Don’t Be Afraid of Small Steps
For those of you who are hoping/expecting to write something and become overnight sensations, let me be the first to tell you… well, keep dreaming comes immediately to mind. Honestly, I’m not trying to crush your aspirations. It’s just that overnight success usually takes a LOT of work in advance. You might argue that people like JK Rowling, Christopher Paolini and the like were instant successes. To that I would suggest you dig into their publishing journey a little deeper. In both cases (and in dozens more) a lot of rejection and self-sacrifice happened before they hit the big time. The fact that they actually did have such astonishing success is a factor of luck as much as talent (some […]
Read moreWhere Does the Time Go?
As of last week I found myself with a lot more time to spend writing (see unemployed) but for some odd reason I’m not getting much more done. Perhaps its because I’m pulling all those fringe projects out to work on too. It could also be because I’m doing a few things around the house that have needed doing. Too many possible excuses. I think anyone will agree, the more time you seem to have free the more things you find to fill it. For example, I have my podcasts (2) one of which requires significant writing for, short stories to write, editing of existing stories to do, promos to write and cut, book reviews to write and record and […]
Read moreThe Power of “Get Involved”
I’ve been thinking about my involvement in social media, podcasting and general networking, specifically with a focus on how I hope it will help me get my work published. I’ve come to a conclusion and it is this: the people who podcast thinking it will get them published directly are missing the point. Now, if you’ve read any of my posts, you know that I rarely make inflammatory comments. It’s not that I’m afraid of starting controversy, but rather I just don’t care to do so. So why do I make one now (and yes, I know on the flame scale it still rates pretty low)? Let me put it this way; those of us who listen to podcasts know of at least […]
Read more