Tag Archives: Writing

The Context Machine and Other Updates

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Looks like a couple of things have happened since my last post. There was the ongoing pandemic. An insurrection. A massive spike in homophobia and transphobia. Book banning (which always works out well). Putin’s bullshit. I moved back to the possibly haunted townhome. My point is that it’s been a while since I posted, and I wanted to make note of a couple of things. You might have caught that Dave Hamilton and I sold The Mac Observer. It’s still weird, but also still wonderful to see our baby in good hands. In a related note, Jeff Gamet is once Continue Reading →

Mason Truman Is on Twitter, and So Is GeekTells

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Mason Truman has a Tweet

Check this out. Mason Truman is on Twitter. @MasonTrumanPI. Yeah, I know. He’s the   main character of my first novel, and sure, he was born…err…will be born in 2087, but there he is tweeting up a steady diet of algae-strained coffee, eagles, and life in the Dawdle. Bleh. AIs, combines, and writers. Literally the banes of my existence. https://t.co/GMGJL8T6MJ — Mason Truman, PI (@masontrumanpi) April 25, 2017

Good Writing and Bad

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It’s a funny thing about writing. It turns out it’s hard. In my efforts to become a published novelist, I’ve had many opportunities to learn some things about writing fiction. One of my first lessons, for instance, was that a Venn diagram of writing skills for journalists and writing skills for fiction has surprisingly little overlap. It probably looks something like this: Imagine my surprise in discovering this. In arrogance rooted somewhere between general competence and blissful ignorance, I started my novel with the assumption that my ability to properly string words together for an article would lend itself just Continue Reading →

Prologue Is Past

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Old typewriter with "Prologue" crossed out by a red pen.

I stripped the prologue from my novel recently. I had to do it, and that makes me tense. Let me explain. No, first, some catchup: I took time off from my novel last year (hence the lack of updates here). I needed to distance myself from it so I could see it with fresh(er) eyes. Once I came back to it, I realized the beginning wasn’t as tight as the ending, where I’ve spent far, far more time. I fixed that, and in the process I made myself nuke the prologue. Agents and editors are mixed on prologues these days, Continue Reading →

Speaking of Clouds, How about Some Words?

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What are words for?

I won’t bother telling you that I’ve finished Accidental Intelligence again. We’ve all been down that path together too many times. I will tell you, however, that I started querying once more. It’s a rough time of year to query because many agents stop taking submissions this quarter, but we’ll see what we see. I have what I think is a good query letter, and Q really helped me polish the holy heck out of my manuscript. Between her and D. A. Del Castillo, not to mention my great betas, I’ve had some remarkable help. Anyhoo, I ran my final manuscript through Wordle.net—which is just Continue Reading →

Fiddle About

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ZOMG, but Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is one of my guilty pleasures. First on Ancient Aliens and various standalone UFO specials, and now on his own show, a reboot of Leonard Nimoy’s In Search Of…I love this guy. In fact, if there’s a show on H2 where the answer to every question asked by the narrator is “No!” Mr. Tsoukoalos is probably involved, and I love them all. Right now, I’m watching the In Search Of… episode dedicated to Puma Punku. This place fascinates me. I reject the conclusions reached on every show I’ve seen about the site—i.e. that aliens built it Continue Reading →

Scattershot: Writing Update, Guitar Show, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

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Drool

I know, it’s been roughly forever since my last update. I’ve been working quite hard on my novel(s), and I have a new query letter that’s almost ready to go out. I’ve also been working very hard at TMO, and have resumed my original role there as editor-in-chief. It’s made for a very, very busy me, and updating my blog has was one area that suffered accordingly. Querying Some of you might remember that I queried my novel before, roughly two years ago. I’ve explained all that, but with the newly completed novel came the need for a new query Continue Reading →

Stick a Fork in It (Again)

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I am delighted to announce that my book is finished. Again. I know, I said that before. OK, I’ve said it twice, but I think it will stick this time. I am ready to shop this puppy. Again. Mayhaps I should explain: a few months ago I finished the book and got it out to beta readers. Based on their feedback, I decided to tweak the ending. That ended up being much harder than I was anticipating, and I ended up writing some 24,000 words for what ultimately became a 2,600 word tweak. Just imagine me at an old-fashioned typewriter Continue Reading →

What’s in a Year?

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It’s been an interesting year in very many ways, but I decided to use Tax Day to look back at what’s most important. My hair. Yeah, I know. I haven’t updated my blog in something like 5 months, and now I’m back talking about my hair. That’s how I roll. Besides, lookit: in thirteen or so months, I’ve gone from metrosexual wannabe to a William Shakespeare impersonator, with a pitstop trying out for Beck’s band in between. I also stopped coloring my hair, so there’s that. While we’re talking about me, check out this photo my friend Jim Tanous took Continue Reading →

Off to the Beta Readers…

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It’s weird. Really weird, but I don’t have anything that I can—or even should—do to my book, and that’s because I’ve sent it to a few beta readers. While I still have 1,000 more words to cut, I need to let it sit before I go through it for what is probably the 50th time. And with that last pass, I was pretty pleased with it. I feel like it’s close, but as I mentioned last week, no one but my trusted critique partner has seen 70 or so percent of it, so now it’s time to find out what Continue Reading →