I used to think that writing a book was the only thing I needed to do to be a writer. I guess in a way I was right. By writing, I am a writer. Just not a published one. Now that I have done some writing and even gotten a couple stories published, I know that the writing can be the easiest part (believe it or not) of the process. I was reminded of this when I looked at my most recently completed story. As you may or may not know, on Sunday I finished writing my podcast novel, GalaxyBillies. It was a lot of work but it is finally done. At least, the podcast version is. I hadn’t been […]
Read moreCategory: Books
This section contains new books and reviews of books I’ve read.
Entering the E-Age
I’ve finally taken the plunge and it has only taken my first two stories being published in e-format to do it. I now have an e-reader. It’s a step I’ve wanted to take for a while; I really wanted an iPad, but finances simply don’t allow it. However, I can’t complain about the e-reader I’ve got (we’ll see how I feel after I’ve had it a few months). There have been several hints that I should get an e-reader. Over the past couple years I’ve received a number of books to review/critique in e-format. The problem with this is most of my reading is done away from my computer. So how do I read them? My iPod touch will act […]
Read moreBook Review: Evolve, Vampire Stories of the New Undead
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 moreDon’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 […]
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