Ollie and the Stickman
Reading Time: 16 minutesWhen Olivia gets bored in class and doodles a stickman on her arm, she has no idea what she’s in for. When it is brought to life by a rival girl, everything changes.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Sep. 5
Reading Time: 9 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Sep. 5 Read More »
Why I’m blogging my next book
Reading Time: 5 minutesI’m blogging my next book. Every weekday, I post a new installment. It’s all part of my mission to find a writing process that works for me.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Sep. 3, 2021
Reading Time: 16 minutesWe read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a witches, vampires, EMP attacks, aliens, and, of course, plenty of sexy shapeshifters.
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Setting up an author website: Before you start
Reading Time: 11 minutesWhether you are planning to follow my tutorial to create a free but expensive-looking author website, or hire a developer to build one for you, you will need to create some content before you get started. Here’s what you’ll need.
Apocalyptic films have lulled us into a false sense of security about climate change
Reading Time: 4 minutesRehearsing the end of the world through film may have desensitized us, lulling us into a false sense of security that all will end well — and that we are immortal.
Apocalyptic films have lulled us into a false sense of security about climate change Read More »
Osprey
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe New Gods were cast out two hundred and sixty-two years ago when humanity enacted the Great Blackout. We had already lost almost everything. Rumors have persisted ever since that they would find a way to return and finish what they started.
Dancing With Etta
Reading Time: 6 minutesA puppet suddenly appears in a woman’s house, and though it is confined to the house only, it follows her like a shadow.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Aug. 29
Reading Time: 10 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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Six steps to becoming a writer, or, how to write a book one sentence a day
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe interviewed best-selling sci-fi author Steven Barnes about how to become a successful writer, and he delivered.
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Do the Jedi Abide?
Reading Time: 2 minutesHow Dude are the Jedi? Do the Jedi abide? The short answer is yes, from a certain point of view.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Aug. 27, 2021
Reading Time: 13 minutesWe read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a witches, vampires, dystopian futures, and, of course, the usual weekly crop of sexy shapeshifters.
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Limb Regeneration Therapy
Reading Time: 3 minutesWill this be the doctor who finally takes on Aki’s limb regeneration? It’s the sixth alien specialist and hope is slowly vanishing from his eyes.
This World of Strange Design
Reading Time: 4 minutesBuilding a planet used to be harder. There was a real art to it. It required raw talent polished to a diamond’s edge.
Superfine
Reading Time: 4 minutesLightyears from home, a miner toils on a moon, gradually being hollowed out. They scrape a life, money to support their family, and something like friendship, from the dirt. But when disaster strikes, they are forced to make a hard decision.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Aug. 22
Reading Time: 10 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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3 things I learned from teaching students about horror pioneer George Romero’s movies during these scary times
Reading Time: 4 minutesRomero’s professional ingenuity and powerful metaphors can inspire us during the pandemic.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Aug. 20, 2021
Reading Time: 15 minutesWe read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an EMP attack, sexy aliens, vampires, a dragon riding school, and a cozy magical mystery.
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Cramping Your Style
Reading Time: 5 minutesIf you had the power to take down your opponents on the soccer field simply by touching them, would you?
Quabbin’s Child
Reading Time: 14 minutesAlone on a foggy day, among the ruins of an old New England town, a runner has an encounter with the ghost of a small child asking for help.
What your favorite horror movie says about the type of miserable horror writer you really are
Reading Time: 4 minutesRobert Stahl has analyzed some favorite horror films to present this list for your consideration.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Aug. 15
Reading Time: 11 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Aug. 13, 2021
Reading Time: 15 minutesWe read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes environmental catastophers, time travel, sexy shapeshifters and magic powers galore.
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Top speculative fiction authors on Quora
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuora is a site where random people post questions and random people answer them. Some of those people are sci-fi and fantasy authors.
Vote now in the Dragon Awards
Reading Time: 3 minutesDragon Con is the first week of September this year in Atlanta but whether or not you plan to attend the massive multimedia convention you can still vote in the Dragon Awards.
Hungry
Reading Time: 13 minutesJust how long can young Will Graves hold back on his craving for human brains?
Weekend Treasures
Reading Time: 12 minutesFlea markets have gizmos, thingamajigs and other useful things.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Aug 8
Reading Time: 7 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Aug. 6, 2021
Reading Time: 16 minutesWe read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes time travel, werewolves, fairies, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and a retelling of the Garden of Eden.
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The Bars of Orion
Reading Time: 24 minutesCrossing into a parallel universe is traumatic, but being a good father and learning to let go requires treatment.
5 things the best author websites of 2021 have in common
Reading Time: 12 minutesToday’s modern, professionally-designed author websites have three things in common: Wordpress, responsive design, and panel styling.
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Pumpkin Seeds
Reading Time: 17 minutesLate one night, an orphan sees a strange monster, a man, patiently waiting just outside the minister’s home.
Situation
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhat happens when a young mage tries to contain a hell breach? Well, it’s hell.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Aug 1
Reading Time: 7 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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Why Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ still feels relevant today
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe rap song “Whitey on the Moon” has new relevance with the recent space trips of billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
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Sci-fi and fantasy poetry contest now open to submissions
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s poetry contest’s deadline is August 31, 2021.
Sci-fi and fantasy poetry contest now open to submissions Read More »
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 30, 2021
Reading Time: 15 minutesI’ve read the first chapters of the top ten free spec fic books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an alien invasion, Captain Hook, space smugglers, sexy shape-shifters, sexy aliens, and a political thriller involving a psychic detective.
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The Boy in the Giant Robot
Reading Time: 4 minutesOnce there was a giant robot. Inside the giant robot was a boy.
What to do if 99% of people hate your writing
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhat do you do if you send out your work for critiques and the overwhelming response is negative?
Militaries plunder sci-fi for tech ideas, but turn a blind eye to the social commentary
Reading Time: 4 minutesOne of the most interesting tools for thinking about future defense technology isn’t big data forecasting and the use of synthetic training environments, but narrative and imagination. And we get this from science fiction.
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2021 World Fantasy Award finalists announced
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe finalists for the 2021 World Fantasy Awards have been announced, including Lifetime Achievement recipients Megan Lindholm and Howard Waldrop.
An Unusual Practice
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Dr. Matthew Hamilton just wanted a nice, quiet practice at a small clinic. He never bargained for a reputation as the go-to doctor for supernatural creatures. But his very first patient leads him into a world of werewolves, ghosts, sprites, glass people, imps, and witches. In order for Dr. Hamilton’s unique clinic to succeed, however, he must triumph over malevolent forces who don’t want the supernatural world to have their own “Doctor of the Unusual.”
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for July 25
Reading Time: 7 minutesI subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 23, 2021
Reading Time: 16 minutesI’ve read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a post-apocalyptic western, a sexy shape shifter, a sexy alien, and four epic fantasies. Oh, and a demonic insurance agency.
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Are there any planets outside of our solar system?
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe number of planets in the universe is truly astronomical — some are gas giants, like Jupiter in our solar system. Others may be water worlds or ice planets. And some are Earth-like.
Are there any planets outside of our solar system? Read More »
Kept Woman
Reading Time: 5 minutesAfter literally sucking the life out of her abusive husband, a ghost wife tells her story of ruin and retribution.