I had the pleasure of being a guest on Brian Niemeier’s Geek Gab: On the Books podcast today, where we talked about writing non-human characters. As he states in his post, it’s an important yet under-discussed topic in the science fiction (and fantasy) world. Check out Brian’s post, which includes links to my highly viewed articleContinue reading “How to Write Non-Human Characters”
Tag Archives: writing advice
JordanCon 2014 Recap (Part 3)
Day 3…the last day of the con. I successfully dragged myself out of my room in time for the Team Jordan signing at 10am. I noticed that there ended up being a very short line; probably a product of being first thing in the morning after an evening where people had been drinking. So forContinue reading “JordanCon 2014 Recap (Part 3)”
JordanCon 2014 Recap (Part 2)
On to day 2. (Also here I’d like to thank the creators of the JordanCon app, which makes looking back at the panel details much easier, in addition to being useful during the convention.) Surprisingly, I got downstairs relatively on time on the Saturday of the convention this year; not having to wait long toContinue reading “JordanCon 2014 Recap (Part 2)”
Death in Fiction: A Discussion on the Killing Off of Characters (Spoilers for the Divergent Series, and Others)
(Note: This posts also contains some spoilers for the Harry Potter series, the Hunger Games series, the Song of Ice and Fire series, and the Wheel of Time Series. This post is about death, and most fiction has it.) And now, finally, we’re reaching the end of my Divergent-centric posts, which is just as well, as I’d rather dwell on the great books I’veContinue reading “Death in Fiction: A Discussion on the Killing Off of Characters (Spoilers for the Divergent Series, and Others)”
J K Rowling, George Lucas, and Retcons (Mostly A Rant)
This wasn’t a post planned in advance, but when I saw the ‘news’ where J K Rowling ‘announced’ that she regretted pairing up Ron and Hermione in the Harry Potter series not long ago, I felt the need to say something about it. (Though I am aware that in the full interview her comments weren’t asContinue reading “J K Rowling, George Lucas, and Retcons (Mostly A Rant)”
Plot and Setting: Why Bigger is Not Always Better (A Continuation of My Thoughts on the Divergent Series)
(Warning: Spoilers for the Divergent series and the Hunger Games series.) As I mentioned in my quick review of the Divergent series, the first problems with the story began to appear in the second book, Insurgent, where it felt like the author decided that the story needed to be ‘bigger’, and went about expanding it the wrong way, whichContinue reading “Plot and Setting: Why Bigger is Not Always Better (A Continuation of My Thoughts on the Divergent Series)”
Some Thoughts and Observations After Completing My Second Book
If you follow me on twitter, You might be aware that this week I completed my second book (the first draft of it, at least). This is a really exciting and important milestone for me. While completing that first one was in many ways more important in that I knew that I could finish a novel,Continue reading “Some Thoughts and Observations After Completing My Second Book”
Why the Story of Mass Effect is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told, and What it Has to Offer Genre Writers (Part 2: The Geth)
Ah, the Geth. This topic was probably the one I was most looking forward to writing about, primarily because this is a fairly specific aspect of the game, but in my view it’s one of the best things about it, and adds so much to the great universe of Mass Effect. People often talk aboutContinue reading “Why the Story of Mass Effect is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told, and What it Has to Offer Genre Writers (Part 2: The Geth)”
Writing, Ascendant 