One of my favorite authors, and a friend I’m pleased to say, is Peter Grant. Peter’s work is usually space opera, and darn good ones at that. But today is the launch date for his newest book, and it’s something completely different. If you’re thinking that looks like a Louis L’Amour cover, you’re spot on.… Read More Review: Brings the Lightning
I just reread a comfort book. A Louis L’Amour called A Man Called Trent. That was the magazine version of a story he reworked into The Mountain Valley War for a Bantam paperback. There isn’t enough difference between the stories to matter much, though I’m sure there is more material in the paperback version. It… Read More Reasonable Stocks
It seems obvious that in order to get a reader interested in your story, you must have a great line. Something that stands out, grabs their attention, but isn’t corny. The idea here is to intrigue your reader and bring them into the story without making them lean away and smile politely until they can… Read More Seducing the Reader: Part 1
When you are reading a novel, how important is the end to you? What’s a great ending you remember? What’s one that will make you toss the book and think ‘never reading that author again’? I’m getting to the very end of Pixie Noir, and I want to make it good for you, my readers!… Read More The End
I read the short story Hitchhiking Killer for Hire, written by Thomas Sewell, and was rewarded with more than I had expected. Well plotted, with one of the best flashback sequences I have read in a short story, this little tale ties together no fewer than three time streams to form a action-packed story of… Read More Review: Sharper Security
My weekly post at Amazing Stories is up. And, to go along with that exercise in writing manly men, I have to go along with the posts at Mad Genius Club this week, ‘Light and Set, and Inspiration from the Past, both pondering Louis L’Amour, arguably the greatest Western author, and a master at writing… Read More Writing Gender
One of the reasons I write is that I love to read. My Mom tells me I learned how to read at four, but I honestly don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. Mom may have regretted teaching me, because what I do remember is her trying to slow me down or keep me… Read More Book Hunting