I have learned a lot in my current round of revising my “Mik Murdoch” manuscript. The very biggest lesson has been not to rush the story. I know I’ve mentioned this, but I sometimes find myself hurrying a story to finish it. It results in glossed over scenes, scenes that end too abruptly or just situations that are unlikely. As you might imagine, I’m getting tagged with more of those at the end of the book than I was at the beginning. So, I’ve been working for the past several days trying to get to that most sought after page, the last. Except, I keep getting tripped up with little comments like “Expand this” or “Ends too suddenly” or even […]
Read moreTag: five rivers publishing
Not Enough Hours in the Day
One of the things that always gets my creative juices flowing is the chance to meet and talk with other creative types, especially writers. That being said, you can imagine how much fun I had last night talking to the good folks at Flying Island Press on the Galley Table. This wasn’t my first time on the show, but it was the first time my co-writer and collaborator JR Murdock and I were on a show together. It is also the first time my alter-ego (JAHite on Twitter) and I appeared on the show at the same time. Let me begin by explaining the inside joke of JAHite and alter-ego. I made a comment a few weeks ago that Jeff […]
Read moreDecisions
As you may know, I have a book under contract with Five Rivers Publishing. That particular book is scheduled for release next year. I also have several other books written that I haven’t quite decided what to do with yet. For example, my very first novel, a traditional sword and sorcery fantasy hasn’t had a great deal of success finding a publisher. The people who have read it liked it, but it hasn’t found a home yet. I’m considering a few options. The first is to podcast it as is. The second is to rewrite it and podcast it. The third is to self-publish as is and the forth… well, that’s the thing. I could keep going. The reason for […]
Read moreThe Waiting Game
For those of you who are new to writing or even to submitting your work, I’ve got a revelation that you may or may not want to hear: the publishing industry is slow. Now before you cry out “Leave the poor publishers alone!” I want you to know I don’t say that as a criticism. I am simply stating a fact. Publishers, editors, agents, and yes, even writers are all human. They have a finite amount of time to try and wrestle a (seemingly) infinite amount of work into. Take a publisher for example. The publisher has to find work good enough to put into print, then put said work under contract (which will involve some level of negotiations), match […]
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