Monthly Archives: August 2014

Active Shooter preview — Chapter 1 excerpt and Download link

If you’re looking for a shorter story to provide you with an entry point into the Our Cyber World series, allow me to recommend Active Shooter. In this prequel to Pink Ballerina we meet Andre Esperanza shortly after he thwarted a terrorist attack on Los Angeles International Airport. The short-lived fame that follows leads him […]

Shadow-7, Tracking Jane series, Chapter 2 preview

As we gear up for the release of the Tracking Jane series (pre-order episode 1!), I’ll share a preview of the first two chapters. Today I’m including Chapter 2 below, along with a brief synopsis. If you didn’t get it the first time, click here for the Chapter 1 preview. Synopsis for Shadow-7 Army canine […]

How photography impacted my story-telling

Did I make a mistake when I set my writing aside to self-express myself through photography? Having returned now to the written word, I have been contemplating — I do that a lot — what if anything I can take from photography into my writing. Did I waste ten years of my life during which […]

Dreamlander: a Work of Thought-Provoking Imagination

K.M. Weiland’s Dreamlander launches from a conceptual query: what if our dreams reflect the life we experience in a parallel world? From this question, K.M. Weiland formulates a dynamic story which but for two minor flaws, would get my full five star treatment. Before I go on to expand on why I loved this story, […]

When Characters Say the Darnest Things

Ever since, Julian Rodgers, one of my DEAD BEEF characters said, “Keep it random, keep it real,” I’ve been raising my eyebrows, laughing and crying at some of the things my characters say. This may sound a little creepy, but they come up with these things all on their own. I often stare at the […]

Shadow-7, Tracking Jane series, Chapter 1 preview

As we gear up for the release of the Tracking Jane series, episode 1 (pre-order now!), I’ll share a preview of the first two chapters. I’m including Chapter 1 below, along with a brief synopsis. Synopsis for Shadow-7 Army canine trainer and handler Jane McMurtry served in Afghanistan with her dog Shadow until an IED […]

Write What I Know? Answered in Two Easy Tweets

What do you think about the writing only what you know? If you’re a reader, how enjoyable would books be if authors stick to what they know? As those loaded questions may already suggest, my enthusiasm for the “write what you know” oft-spouted advice wanes to the max. Here’s my first Tweetable thought on the […]

Story-telling: to go long or to go short

If I may blow the punchline short stories aren’t long enough. Not long enough to develop a character, not long enough to have a fully resolved conflict, not long enough to fully unveil a world. They’re fun, and I’ve read some good ones, but for this writer, they just don’t have enough calories. Or I […]

What marathoning taught me about life and writing

About one of the most painfully life-changing things I’ve ever done is to take up marathoning. In the end, plagued by a varied array of injuries, after running four misery-riddled races, I opted for shorter distances. I still go running a few miles here and there, during which I manage to clear my head and […]

Introducing the Tracking Jane Series

By early fall of 2014 I will release a new series of stories following Jane McMurtry, an injured Army veteran who has spent her adult life training warrior dogs and partnering with them to find bombs and track missing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jane comes home having suffered grievous injuries during an IED explosion. […]