Movie Night

Lisa and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon last night, a movie Brigid recommended (she had dragged her boyfriend to it earlier, and even he had liked it). Much fun, if just a tiny bit slow at one part. This morning it was back to the novel grindstone. I’m nearing the halfway […]

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“Kagari” Hits the Post

I completed a short story titled “Kagari” this weekend. Both Brigid (my daughter, for those of you who might be newish to me) and Lisa (wife) have read it and liked it. I mentioned it before as a story I’ve spent probably a quarter-million words on, so I’m happy to see it finally rounded into […]

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Paying the Price

Okay, I took a diversion. After thinking through the plot structure of a new story, and after noting I was working through a novel, I happened across an draft of an old story that I had put away for some time because I was unhappy with its middle. And its end. But the beginning has […]

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Thanks, Eric

I think it’s physically impossible to be in a bad mood when you’re listening to Eric Clapton play the blues. Yeah, I know, the blues are the blues–they’re supposed to be about heartbreak and pain and suffering. But you know it just doesn’t work that way. Blues, when played right, is about recovery and taking […]

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Quarterly Review

I’ve spent the past day stewing over the decision of what to write next, and in the quiet of the moment I took a look back over the past three months (being a real life corporate type, I figure it’s time for my quarterly review). The results, you ask: Overall, not bad: six new short […]

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Fixing Things Up

Lisa finished her reading of the last story I completed, and the results are a mixed bag. First, there were relatively few typos and basic copy-editing errors, which is always good (hey, the place isn’t called “The Typosphere” for nothing). But she asked a couple great questions about the story itself which I could answer […]

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Wired for Words

The last two days have been business days, meaning I’ve put submissions together and got things in the mail. This also includes some final work on tax paperwork I needed to prepare that was not related to writing in any way. Always much fun. I tend to batch my business days like this rather than […]

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One draft, two draft, three draft, more

I worked my way through the second draft at lunch yesterday, though I suppose it would be more accurate to call it draft 1.5. I did this work on paper, marking up a draft with many (many, many) ink-scrawlings. I left three problems behind that I marked in big pink highlighter. This morning, I went […]

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Drafts One and Two

The latest tale is drawing to its end. I have a couple items I need to research to make sure I’m getting things right, and I think the last scene still feels kind of tagged on. But it should be done in the next day or two. I think. This is the story I spoke […]

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