July 2nd, 2010

A personal note: on the closet.

I’m dispensing with the writing and publishing talk today and getting extremely personal, because I need to.  In case you read no further, here’s the point of this post: come out of the closet.  I’m not talking about being gay or lesbian, not specifically.  Whatever closet you are in, whatever you are keeping secret about [...]

June 29th, 2010

On Authors, Actors, and Agents

One of my best friends is an actor.  You’ve probably seen her in something, but you probably don’t know it.  She’s been prominently featured on Law and Order and a couple of its acronym-oriented spin-offs, Damages, White Collar, Rescue Me, Gossip Girl, Mercy, Kings, and other television programs, and been in in a few television [...]

April 23rd, 2010

On blogging and trying to get published

If you’re new to this blog, it shouldn’t take long to learn that I’m currently trying to find a literary agent.  I’ve completed a fantasy novel, Volve, and I’m working on a second (unrelated) novel now.  I’ve got four to six more novels simmering in my mind, some of which have been there for quite some [...]

April 23rd, 2010

Querying again / Reducing word count

Every step in the process of trying to publish a book teaches new lessons.  Faithful readers may recall that I sent out nearly thirty query letters for my novel Volve in September, and met universal rejection.  I deduced, hopefully correctly, that the specific problem was my 130 thousand word length, which exceeds the upper limit [...]

April 20th, 2010

Shitting on Phil Collins, Part Two

Yesterday I explained my personal sentimental connection to the work of Phil Collins and Genesis, and how my perspective has evolved with my musical tastes.  Even with that as background, I still feel bad for the rest of this post, so here is a disclaimer:  I love Phil Collins.  He’s one of the greatest rock [...]