• All the Reasons You Should Read the Broken Earth Trilogy

    The Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth Trilogy is a great read, and here are all the reasons you should pick it up.

  • Allegory and Children of Blood and Bone

    It’s a bit chilly for August, but that doesn’t stop me from dumping a few ice cubes into a glass. Add a quarter of lime, a lug of gin, and a generous pour of tonic, and it’s a drink. I mean, it’s liquid in a glass, so I suppose that’s not a high mark to reach.

  • Another Draft Finished and My Summer Writing Plans

    It has been some time since I last updated this blog, and I feel I’m due for a new post. The last few months have been challenging on many levels, especially for writing and my dedication to this book. I’ll share some of those challenges and what I think the next few months will look like…

  • Hello, there! I’m Back.

    Hello, everyone. It’s been…. quite awhile. One year, four months, and nine days to be precise. Yikes. What have I been doing over the past year? Not a lot, honestly. OK, that’s not true at all. I’ve been busy, I just haven’t been writing. That kind of sucks, but it’s also been good in some…

  • The Practicalities of Building a Magic System: What I’ve Learned So Far

    When writing fantasy, the key to any good magic system lies in consistency. This is a lesson I’m learning now. It’s easy for me to get caught up in developing innovative forms of craft (incantations, wands, etc.) or cultural heritage. However, without consistency as a back bone, there’s really nothing to make a magic system believable,…

  • 3 Destructive Writing Habits

    Most every writer has a few bad habits. I mean, when making a habit of writing, it’s fairly easy to add other habits into the mix of our process. Many bad habits are mostly harmless, like chewing pens or mumbling your characters’ lines out loud. However, sometimes our bad habits as writers can become downright…

  • What I’m Reading – July

    There are few things as important to the writing process as a good reading lineup. I’ve discussed before how I like to build reading lists, and I’ve even shared a few recommendations in the past. I find that I can learn more about a person from what they’re reading or have read recently than a…

  • So You Want a Steady Job in Writing: 4 Industries Seeking Writers that You Might Not Have Considered

    I know from personal experience that many people feel writers have fairly limited career paths. After graduating with my English degree, I frequently was asked if I would teach, and after I responded in the negative, they asked what I could possibly do that was stable. The truth is there are many stable writing careers…

  • Creative Theft: 3 Great Writers Who Stole Their Best Ideas

    It’s vital that all authors find their own voice and strive toward a creative approach to their story. However, it’s also a little ridiculous to believe that all works of fiction must be entirely new and original. For instance, I grew a little nervous when a friend compared the magic system in my book to alchemy…

  • 3 Book Adaptations that Actually Rock

    I’m sure I’m not the only reader who has felt betrayed by a bad movie or TV adaptation of a favorite book (The SyFy Earthsea miniseries comes to mind). However, there are many adaptations of books that actually do a stand-up job. For me, there are three that come to mind immediately. They work for me…