So, here’s the thing. I’ve just seen Lisa Silverthorne’s news about completing the Novel Dare challenge, and I’m so stoked I can’t barely believe it. It makes me happy in ways that are like watching the moon rise over the mountains here in Oro Valley, or like watching the stars glitter in the big expanse […]

This was the first day in a long time where I could start in the morning and work pretty clear through the early afternoon. The story is coming along, and I’m at about 51K. With six days left I’m thinking I’ll probably finish the full story—though we’ll see if I have to do a little […]

Dad’s cat’s reaction to the Dare isn’t all that It’s been a bit of a weird day in that I wrote in what are essentially three “sprints” that add up to about 3,500 words on the day. I use the quotes in “sprints” because the first span of time was really spent in front of […]

I “lost” the morning’s time–quotes there to mean that I didn’t lose the time so much as chose to spend it helping to take my father’s car into the shop for both repair and check up. The afternoon was a little better, but I admit that (1) I was tired, and (2) I got distracted […]

Hey, I’m totally stoked to see that Superstitious, the latest Fiction River anthology is out. As fate would have it, this one has stories by both me and Lisa Silverthorne (my Dare-mate) in it, too–as well as several other great writers. In an additional twist of fate, my story, “The Robin Club,” is also a […]

While my writing buddy Lisa Silverthorne is playing completely by the rules by posting her Dare progress every day—I’ve been a horrible slacker, just plunking words down and not doing the needful here. Yes, I suck. On the plus side, I am moving forward. The story is at just under 25,000 words now. Today was […]

Yeah, I know these Novel Dare entries are intended to be about the work I’m doing on the book itself, but this one didn’t really go there. Sorry about that. I’ll do better tomorrow. # # # As fate would have it, the mailman brought me a contributor’s copy of the “Spies” edition of Fiction […]

I dreamed about the book last night. I think that’s a good sign, though to be honest I can’t really remember exactly what the dream was. That’s how dreaming is for me, mostly—I wake up with the memory of having dreamed, feeling a lingering aura for maybe a few minutes, a snippet of it in […]

For folks who are insane enough to want to follow this process, I thought it might be fun to talk about outlining vs. pantsing, and how I’ve worked so far this time. The fact of the matter is that I’ve worked in all sorts of ways, and I think the “right” answer is regarding whether […]