What is “work?”

So today I wrote for a bunch of the day, and I worked on a different project. And I also took a 20 minute break to vacuum the family room area–which, admittedly has needed it for some time. My brain wandered as I was vacuuming, I realized that something I had written earlier in the […]

Share Me
Read More ...

“The Flying Contraption” hits print

I celebrate my last day on the “real job” by noting that my story “The Flying Contraption” will be published in Elementary, an anthology of stories written in Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters universe. You never know how these things are going to go, of course, but it was nice to see Publishers Weekly do a […]

Share Me
Read More ...

The powers that be play not fair

“Ron?” Lisa’s voice came from upstairs. It was 6:30 AM, and I was on my last dash toward actually finishing this beast of a manuscript I’ve been calling Episode Seven. “Yes?” She proceeded to let me know that the Gods of Interruption had once again struck, threatening to delay the completion of this story for […]

Share Me
Read More ...

Lucky #11

This morning comes news that Analog wants to publish my short story “Unfolding the Multi-cloud.” I think I shall say yes. Counting my collaboration with John Bodin (which is included in our collection “Three Days in May”), and assuming no oddities in publishing schedules and whatnot, this should represent my eleventh appearance in that magazine. […]

Share Me
Read More ...

What I did on my last vacation

Today was my last day of paid vacation. Next week will see me finish my last Monday, last Tuesday, and last Wednesday. By that time, you’ll all be totally sick of me talking about “lasts.” But until then you’ll either need to deal with it, or just go read Whatever or some other more entertaining […]

Share Me
Read More ...

Reversing gender roles?

“Do you enjoy getting dinner together?” Lisa said. I looked at her like this might be a trick question, a set-up or something. But the mantle has already shifted in our household–I’ve already been doing the bulk of meal prep since the time of Lisa’s foot surgery (weak though that prep might be!). I couldn’t […]

Share Me
Read More ...

Profanity

“You will never find a character use foul language in any of my stories.” This something I’ve heard a couple times from writers recently, and it’s something that’s stuck in my craw enough that I’m still thinking about it this weekend. I rarely say anything when I hear someone say this–or at least I haven’t […]

Share Me
Read More ...

Episode Seven: Biting the Dust

Episode Seven, Lord of the Freeborn is officially mine. Finally. Oh, sure, I still have ten pages or so to straighten up. Not a problem. The flow is right. The story is where it needs to be, and the micro writing is at least workable. So, yes, I say unto Episode Seven that you are […]

Share Me
Read More ...

My “final” well, duh moment

Writing a story is like any other big and complex task–the real challenge is to see it clearly. If you work in a corporate environment, you should glom onto that statement quite easily. I think the source of pretty much every oddity of the corporate work environment is driven by the idea that a leader […]

Share Me
Read More ...