What’s the Big Deal about BigUniverse.com?

The letter from the publisher of my latest children’s book read “Congratulations! WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HUMPTY” has been acquired by BigUniverse.com. Of course, I went right to the Internet to check it out. Was this the whole e-book thing I’d heard so much about? Had I defended my Kindle only to have it come [...]

The Death Of Books: Deja Vu All Over Again

What could this ancient ad possibly have to do with publishing in 2010? Oh, it's a reach, but…

I’ve been hearing the death knell ringing for the book again a lot lately. Not any particular book. All of them. The book as an object, as something you can carry out of a store or, as [...]

YET ANOTHER REASON NOT TO WRITE (IF YOU NEED ONE)

The classic writing rule, a Prime Rule, perhaps THE RULE:

WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW.

“Que sais-je?”

“What do I know?”
–Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
(1533-1592)

Fiction, History, and Tombstone

Last month on the seventh, I was on my way to Tucson to spend a week hanging out and doing touristy things with friends. This month, I want to talk about one of those touristy things, namely the town of Tombstone, Arizona, and the questions that Tombstone made me think about.

Tombstone is famous for the [...]

Landscapes

Just a note to pay attention, in this season of change (and isn’t always that season?), to landscape.  Setting.  The physical place in which the action of your story takes place.

 Because, even if you’re a minimalist, you’re going to have to provide a physical stage for your characters to feel, interact, move. 

 Even a bare stage [...]

The First Rule of Critique Club

About three or four years ago, my writing group set out to create a system for sharing and critiquing each other’s work.  It was a disaster.  Someone gave us an excellent plan to follow and it should have been a breeze.  In the corpse-riddled fall-out, a few numbed survivors were left roaming around with blood [...]

Some Thoughts on Book Promotion & Publishing

No matter what side of the self-publishing, Publish-on-Demand, e-Book, Internet makes everyone an author model argument you fall on, there is one fact I find incontrovertible.  What I’m about to say is based on personal observation over more than two decades of writing professionally – you can take it for what [...]