Monthly Archives: January 2016

#SaturdayScenes: Virtual Identity, Part 3

“IT SHOULDN’T TAKE LONG NOW,” Cynthia said to Agent Rodrigo Ochoa. She tapped on the large flat panel display. It showed a split view: on the left a close up of Sandra Tomek’s trembling lips and facial features, and on the right a wide angle view of the interrogation room. Ochoa stood there, arms folded […]

How a Novel that Turned Into a Short Story Became a Novel Again

A while back I wrote about how a story I started as a novel turned into a short story. Well, time has passed and inspiration has struck… When I first conceived King’s Sacrifice, I envisioned it as a full length novel. In writing it, I decided it worked best as a short story, and released […]

#SaturdayScenes: Virtual Identity, Part 2

Though long gone, the zip ties still dug into her wrists. No matter how much Sandra rubbed at the pink bruises, she felt the hard plastic cutting off her circulation. No longer asleep, her hands still tingled from the onrush of blood. And she was shivering. The air conditioning in the interrogation room had to […]

Foreshadowing: 3 Reasons Why I Love When It Happens

Today, hopefully without boring you, I want to talk about one of my favorite literary devices: foreshadowing. It doesn’t get a lot of press or mention in writerly circles, at least not the ones I frequent. I don’t know why. Maybe everyone’s too busy avoiding the dreaded mid-scene point of view (POV) switch, or it’s […]

#SaturdayScenes: Virtual Identity, Part 1

SANDRA TOMEK WAS HOLDING A GUN when the SWAT team busted through her front door. She didn’t think much of the noise. Not at first. It was all in her head, after all, coming through the thickly padded noise-cancelling headphones attached to her surround-vision visor. The sound was pounding it, too, bass-thumping techno-beat and all. […]

#VOTMNews: A Quantum Law Update ~ How One Book Became Two

After setting Quantum Law aside for a couple of months, I’ve returned to it to make some encouraging progress on it. Why did I set it aside for so long? Because one of my best Beta readers told me he thought he saw three stories where I had written one. At first, the feedback rattled […]

Four Ways Beta Readers Help Authors

Why should authors seek Beta readers? Why set additional time aside in your release cycle to consult with a team of folks? Why go through the painstaking work of assessing, adjudicating and incorporating reader inputs? Because it helps. A lot. I’m sure there are many ways to state how Beta readers positively impact an author’s […]

Celebrate a Happy New Year With Two Books at 99 Cents

Dropping you all a quick note to wish you a happy new year! To celebrate, I’m offering two of my Our Cyber World books, Active Shooter and Random Origins, for 99 cents. Pick them up through the new year weekend and enjoy!