Off to the Races

After considerable work on the Horngard I,  so it now has a new beginning, new ending, and a lot of shuffling, trimming, correction of this that and the other in the middle, it’s off to Agent.  Sorry about the long lapse in posting here, but later August and all of September were a wild scramble Read More…

Basics of Writing: Words

The right words in the right order….the foundation of every phrase, every sentence, every paragraph, page, chapter, volume…is made of words.   In speech, the dictionary meaning of words is often less important than the physical speaker’s visual and auditory presence:  facial expression, not just one but several in sequence..gesture and posture–again, not just individually but Read More…

Starts and False Starts

I don’t usually mirror entire posts from one blog to another, but this one, which is a Writing Craft post, is both pertinent to a current project (the Horngard I book) and to every writer, because all of us write a “bad” first chapter from time to time…and don’t fix it right away.  What do Read More…

An Abundance of WORDS & Progress

Day before yesterday, the day after Deeds of Youth‘s birthday, I had a call from my agent, with the latest group of suggestions for Horngard I.   They sounded like good suggestions to me, and doable, and the practice of completing several short stories since the April 29  head whack had proved that the plot-module had Read More…

Genres and Evaluations

Writers are aware of how their work–not just their own work but work rather like theirs–is perceived, evaluated, and judged in the world.  Writers–as shown by the current WGA strike–are not nearly as highly valued as they used to be, when fewer people could write but many wanted something to read.  But this post isn’t Read More…

O Happy Day!

Review copy of  DEEDS OF YOUTH arrived in the mail today for me to look at all the pages and find any flaws.   I did some, will do more tomorrow and Sunday.   Today was gloating and checking the first two stories in it.  I’ve had too much screen time lately, working on “Bank Transfer” so Read More…

Character Names

I ran into another character name situation a couple of days ago…a story in progress kept hanging up on the protagonist’s surname.   None of my early readers had seemed troubled by the one I was using, but I kept feeling that niggling sort of feeling when you’ve left the door of the fridge ajar, and Read More…

Introducing…

Many of you know David Watson as Don Iolo in the SCA, white-scarf rapier fencer, crossbow maker, storyteller, lute player, all-around great friend and good companion.  Many of you also know him via my various newsgroups and blogs over the years, and those who know him in person know he’s got a background in history Read More…