Sword's Edge

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Write What You Read

Everyone has heard “write what you know.” How people define “know” is, of course, variable, but it is fair enough advice on the face of it – if you don’t know about sub-hunting in WWII, don’t write fiction about sub-hunting Read more…


Unconscious Inspiration

Sometimes, you find inspiration in another work and you don’t even try to hide it: my story “Farewell, Something Lovely” is a rip-off of the Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely. I’m okay with admitting my story uses the ideas and Read more…


Character Letter Writing

Back in the day, I used to listen to a writing podcast put out by Michael Stackpole called the Secrets. It was really good. The site is still up, but I don’t think any of the episodes remain available. There Read more…


Outlining and Inspiration

I’ve spoken about my writing process before and I am a planner. I need to outline my stories and novels or else they just keep drifting along, trying to find an ending, but instead always finding different ideas and conflicts Read more…


The Lure of Crime

My present video game addiction is Grand Theft Auto IV. I am not a fan of the cop-killing, which is integral to missions required to move the plot forward, but have come to grips with it. I really like the Read more…


The Fantastical in the Fantasy

Here I am, with a new idea and almost 2,000 words into a new story and I come to the realization that it’s not really a fantasy story. I’ve always considered fantasy stories as not just stories that happen in Read more…


Excessive Vengeance

In the fiction on which I am working – it needs a name, doesn’t it? Let’s call it Pandora Excess for now, both it and the RPG of the same working title will need name changes, but it’s fine for Read more…


In Which I Recognize How Shallow I Am

In case you didn’t know, Nefertiti Overdrive: Ancient Egyptian Wuxia didn’t fund. That’s unfortunate, but I’ve had the last week to just kind of relax (not totally, seems there is always work around the house I can do once I Read more…


The Music of Creation

I’ve been working a lot on Nefertiti Overdrive, and I’m almost always listening to music when I do so. I have my “Centurion playlist,” the music to which I listened when I worked on Centurion: Legionaries of Rome. I’ve added Read more…


Writing: Sleep On It

There’s a lot of advice I would give to a writer who asked, and I’ve touched on most of it before. Read. Read outside your genre. Read non-fiction. Observe. Write. Finish what you write. Finish first, edit second. Schedule writing Read more…