If you asked my wife, she'd tell you my mood fluctuates up and down with my writing . If the words flow easily, I'm up. On a day when the right words escape me, I'm down. The same can be said about acceptances or rejections, and good reviews or the inevitable (but thankfully rare) bad review.
Then there's contests. Let's be honest--there's a certain arbitrariness about book contests. Tastes in book are
Tag Archives: Along the Watchtower
First Draft Frustrations
Hooray. I’ve finished slogging through the first ten thousand words of my newest novel (the sequel to the soon to be released The Children of Darkness). For the past two years, I’ve been working on Along the Watchtower and The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky , so it’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with the dreaded blank page. I’d almost forgotten how frustrating it can
Readers’ Favorite Awards
Readers' Favorite Awards Ceremony
Miami - November 2013
[jcolumns model="4" halign="center"] [pb_slideshow group="2"] [jcol/] [/jcolumns] Thanks to Readers' Favorite for hosting a wonderful awards ceremony during the 2013 Miami Book Fair. They offer not only recognition but encouragement to authors, while at the same time providing a great service to readers by identifying quality books. It was also a nice opportunity to meet fellow authors from around the world (asOn genres and literary awards
Yesterday, I received word that two of my novels won bronze medals in the 2013 Readers’ Favorite awards. There Comes a Prophet won in the Young Adult – Coming of Age category, while Along the Watchtower won for Fiction – Drama.
Of course, I was pleased. But what to make of it?
I’d applied to several contests before. All are different, with various categories an author can specify. Most of the categories are genre specific—romance, mystery, paranormal,
Role-playing games and the trauma of war
I’ve always been fascinated by how we perceive reality, each of us bringing our own experiences and biases into play. But it's when we’re ripped from our normal lives and placed in extreme circumstances that our reality becomes totally fragmented. Such is the case with hospitals and war.
A couple of years ago, I became engrossed in the online game, World of Warcraft, thanks to my son. I’m on the east coast and
The box has arrived
My smart phone beeps and the tracking text from UPS appears: Your delivery is at the front door.
I go to the entrance of the house, open the door and gaze too long at the shipment sitting on the stoop, then carefully bend at the knees and lift it up. I lug it into my office and rest it on the desk, the place where I’ve spent all those hours writing. Then
