Tesseracts Fifteen is an experiment of sorts. It marks the first time in the Tesseracts anthology series that all the stories are Young Adult. As an experiment I think it works quite well. The thing about Young Adult stories is, they really cross all genres and, they can be enjoyed by adults as well as younger people. That being the case, this anthology is a fine representation of all things Young Adult There are stories that are clearly science fiction, horror, fantasy, adventure and some that embody tropes from multiple genres. The main characters could easily be the kids you see on the bus every day. The individual contributions to the anthology were a fine mix of stories that made […]
Read moreCategory: Books
This section contains new books and reviews of books I’ve read.
Writing Shouldn’t Be a Solitary Activity
In my early writing days I believed that it was just me and the words. No one else would ever be involved. I was totally alone. I’ve since learned that writing doesn’t need to be so solitary. True, there are times when it should be just you and the keyboard, but there are many times when you should be around and involve other people. For example. critiquing and feedback of your work – I have heard the opinion that a writer must write a million words before they have anything worth sending out. I would argue that a million words without any outside scrutiny doesn’t improve one’s writing much at all. The feedback around what works and what needs work […]
Read moreThe Changing Landscape of Books
The fact that the book industry is changing has never been driven home quite as clearly as it was in the last few days. The first epiphany was when I read a post by my publisher, Lorina Stephens of Five Rivers Publishing. She wrote about how Indigo (the 500-pound gorilla in Canada for book sales) is now pushing the small and indie presses around (post found here). Essentially, the book chain has made the decision to supplement their waning book sales by selling giftware. Fair enough. If it helps them survive, all the power to them. But, and here is where the bullying comes in, they are also basically pushing the small presses out. Lorina says it better than me by far, so I […]
Read moreWhy Publishing is Slow: the Experience
As you probably know, I’ve been working towards the goal of getting published for several years now. Last year I had some success with my short stories, managing to get three of them accepted by various e-magazines and digital sites. That success only encouraged me to work harder to get my books in front of publishers to try and get them published as well. Then, in October, I received my first book contract for my YA Superhero novel, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero”. The book is the first in what I expect to be a six-book series. I was (and still am) very excited about this development, but, as I have said many, many times, publishing is slow. I know where […]
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