Three Features I’d Like to See in Future E-readers Dear E-reader Manufacturers and User Interface Designers, First, kudos for inventing e-readers, and for figuring out how to make it easy to get content for them. Independent authors like me wouldn’t have nearly as viable a career without them, and as a reader, I am thrilled […]
Thoughts about Book Content Warnings and Disclosures There’s been a controversy brewing for awhile on content disclosure and warnings. As a reader, I tend to favor disclosure, because I like good smexy scenes (if they’re plot-driven) as well as the next person, but I like advance notice. I especially want to know if the […]
I was having a conversation-by-post with another science fiction romance (SFR) author, Pauline Baird Jones, and we agreed we’re readers as well as writers, and like to recommend books to our friends. I especially like recommending SFR books to my friends because I’d like our relatively new little corner of the genre universe to take […]
Me, Quoted in a National Newspaper I’m sure some readers of this blog are used to publicity and seeing their names in the paper, but I’m not, so I’m feeling pretty good about being quoted in the “Happily Ever After” column of USA Today. I know, that and $5 gets me a nice chai tea […]
The old adage, “write what you know,” is a good place to start for some writers. Unfortunately, it’s used by some critics, editors, and even writers themselves as a straight-jacket stricture to mean, “write ONLY what you know.” That is egregious nonsense. No science fiction would ever have been written, because if it hasn’t happened […]
Just a short post to announce that Overload Flux (A Central Galactic Concordance Novel) has won a 2015 SFR Galaxy Award for “Best Difficult Courtship: How two very different people make it work.” Overload Flux shares the spotlight with some great books, so I’m honored to be in such illustrious company. If you love science fiction romance, […]
Chapters and Breaks in Fiction… I don’t know quite how to categorize this post, because it’s partly me as a reader with opinions, and partly me as an author with opinions, too. Chapter Breaks, Time Jumps, POV Changes, and other Sticky Wickets Few things throw me out of the story faster than realizing the last […]
Hooray for Holopticon, my first book, is a “retro science fiction comedy.” My co-author and I bill it that way because it was written when we both had a summer free, with no plans for vacations or weddings or vacation trips or the like. If you read the description, you’ll get a hint that the afore-mentioned free […]
Thanks to Lexie Hamilton at her delightfully named “Poisoned Rationality” blog for the nice 5-star review of Overload Flux. It’s a wonderful feeling for an author to know other people like your work and want to read more. 🙂 “…I look forward to there being more books in this universe – while things wrap up […]
If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll already know some of this, but I thought I’d share my plans for 2015 a more public venue. Also, it’s self-motivational, in that I’d like to keep my promises. The Central Galactic Concordance Series Some readers have been kind enough to ask what’s next in the Central Galactic […]
Why You Should Read More Science Fiction Romance in 2015 Five reasons you should read more science fiction romance (SFR) in 2015. For those new to the term, in my book (oh look, humor!), SFR balances plot threads involving futuristic technology and the growth of the emotional relationship between the main characters.* It also has to have […]
Thoughts About Fiction Categories and Keywords We humans love patterns – they’re a time saver, so we don’t have to make the same decision each time we come across something new. “Look at that big tawny cat,” thought a dimwitted ancestor, “I saw one pounce on and eat a gazelle last month. I’m not a […]
On Writing Romance: Character Flaws vs. Flawed Characters Pet Peeves, Round 2This is another in my “reader’s pet peeves” series, primarily in the romance genre. (In case you missed it, here was my previous post on pet peeves.) I’m rather annoyed by impossibly beautiful heroines/heroes who don’t know they’re beautiful, and successful people who don’t […]
Fiction book blurbs—more properly described as “book descriptions”—are hard to write. Whether they’re on the back of the paperback or the first part of the ebook listing, they’re the first taste of what’s in the book, and they will make or break the sale. They have to confirm the genre (the cover should be […]
Speaking as a reader, I’d like to make some gentle suggestions for author websites. Have an Author Website First things first: please have a website. I’m astonished when I run into living, still-active authors who don’t have at least a simple page or blog site, but it happens. Bonus if the website is easy […]