Writer
Besides continuing to write new stories, 2020 was about publishing, from start to finish. I did a challenge with Dean Wesley Smith he calls “The Great Publishing Challenge.” The challenge was to publish one major book a month for an entire year. That’s what I was up to in 2020 with all the releases; 14 in all, two of them didn’t meet Dean’s criteria. I meant to blog about it, but 2020, you know, so …
There’s a lot to say about this book. Mostly because it’s about something very near and very dear to my heart: the relationship between dogs and people (and cats and people, too). Also because much of this book was written during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the Spring of 2020 and I’ve been fascinated with how this insane year has influenced the art created. But before I get into that, feel free to jump ahead …
This is a happy day for me because Carterville is officially a series! Today the first Carterville novel, Out of a Christmas Sky is out. This is a Christmas murder mystery with plenty of suspects and lots of twists and surprises. It’s also a quarantine novel, drafted May – July, 2020 fairly early during the COVID pandemic. I mention this for a couple of reasons: As I wrote about previously, I’m very curious what kind …
I don’t know if you noticed, but this last week or so the sweet holiday movies started hitting our lists of things to stream. And while late October may seem a little early, that doesn’t feel as true in 2020 as it has some other years. I don’t know about you, but I could use a break from the pandemic, and the election here in the US, and the storms and fires, and the endless …
Sometimes a title makes all the difference. It’s like this sprinkle of magic that makes a project come together and suddenly it all makes sense. And that is true for Unfinished Business: The Cases of Walter Anchor Ghost Detective. Unfinished Business encapsulates the journey of an earth bound spirt (i.e. ghost) perfectly. And especially Walter Anchor as he tries to solve his own murder. As I was finishing up Walter’s stories earlier in the year, …
2020 has been a difficult and unusual year. You all are living through it too, so you know what I’m talking about. The COVID-19 pandemic alone would make it a very unusual year much less the racial tensions, political madness, unprecedented wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, and economic disaster (and a bunch more has happened since I started writing this post a couple of weeks ago). This new reality changes things. The obvious huge things (illness, death, …
It’s release day! The Red Arrow Murders is out! It’s been a long journey with Walter Anchor. The idea for a ghost detective came to me when I was working on To Be a Fool, which came out in 2013. I started his first story while that novel was finishing up. I was having so much fun with it that he and Emily have a cameo in To Be a Fool. The initial thought was …
With the series I write, I always think of them in terms of the wider story arc, and in the case of Neutrinoman and Lightningirl in terms of Seasons. I call them “Seasons” for a reason. There is a larger story being told across all the episodes. And, yes, “Season” and “Episode” sounds like a TV show on purpose. It’s the way I think of this. These three books (Off Book, Hard Times, and Elemental …
Okay, Walter Anchor used to be an actor so why not have him solving a murder in a Hollywood? A murder with a particularly Hollywood kind of vibe. He’s a ghost after all and moving about is easy. That is the starting point to this unique murder mystery. Long ago when I was in high school and then again briefly about ten years ago, I did some acting. As a teenager it was plays, lots …
I am ending the Stir Crazy Story program, for now at least. I am leaving Meteor Attack! up for free for a while seeing how there are six episodes in the series now, but it feels like this program has run its course. When I started this, it was just COVID-19 and the world was on lock down. It’s a lot more complicated now with the economy, the racial unrest, and political madness all on top …