My “Mirror Moment” – A Look at Short Stories

June 27, 2020 Leave a comment

According to James Scott Bell in his book, Write Your Novel From The Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between, every successful story contains what he calls a “magical midpoint moment” or “look in the mirror moment” where a single moment in the middle of the story pulls together the entire narrative… I had previously associated this “mirror moment” with fiction, and only fiction–one of the many secret ingredients in a well-crafted story that engages an audience. Now I realize it also applies to me.

Continue Reading →

The Universe Sneezed and Gave Us COVID-19

May 16, 2020 2 Comments

I can’t believe this is happening. Can you?
Sometime in January, the universe sneezed, our space-time continuum shifted, and our metaverse got switched with another. Somehow we got stuck in someone else’s pandemic novel. Or this is proof we’re all living a simulation, like Neo, and somebody with a warped sense of humor introduced a new glitch in the Matrix. I guess it depends on whether you like getting your stories from books or movies. I’m a writer. I like books. I also like cool sci-fi movies. Don’t make me choose favorites.

Continue Reading →

Hello World!

November 29, 2019 Leave a comment

Hello world! I got myself a new website! Why? Because, it turns out, getting my awesome debut novel published is going to take longer that I expected. Which means I’m not bringing in a paycheck. Because folks, while Wix is a very cool and easy to use, it’s kind of pricey at $168 a year when you don’t have a published novel to sell.

Continue Reading →

When is a Final Draft a Final Draft?

December 20, 2018 Leave a comment

I did a DuckDuckGo search for the words “when is a final draft finished novel” (I try to avoid Google) and found, at the top of the search results, a class offered by the Iowa Summer Writing Festival titled The Final Draft: On Finishing and Knowing When You’ve Finished Your Novel. In other words, the answer to this innocuous question is valuable enough to be turned into a commodity that can be exchanged in the free market for money, like pork bellies.

Continue Reading →

Adventures in Queryland: Me vs. LitBot

October 19, 2017 Leave a comment

When I began querying literary agents this past spring, I believed they would fall in love with my awesome first chapter and my amazing writing (go ahead, laugh). They did not. After thirteen rejections, three no-replies, and an overpriced online Writers Digest course on what literary agents look for in a query, I think I know why.

Continue Reading →