David B Coe

Dark Eyes

Faith Hunter

Blood Cross

A J Hartley

Will Power

Misty Massey

Mad Kestrel

C E Murphy

Heart of Stone

When Readers Write

Next week, I will begin the first of two sessions speaking to a small group of students at Wake Forest University on the subject of writing — in particular, writing openings and creating creatures.  The catch: these are biology students.

See, this all began a few years ago when a professor in the biology department [...]

Evolution of the Novel Part 3

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been posting on the evolution of voice and genre, as shown in the WIP, written (and still being rewritten) by Tiffany (Tiff), a writer I have been working with for 2 or 3 years. With Tiff’s permission, I told her story and how she found a narrator’s voice and [...]

The Evolution of the Novel, Part two

Last week, in part one, I discussed the evolution of voice in the work of one of my protégées, Tiff. With her permission, I told her story and how she found a narrator’s voice and a character’s voice that was uniquely hers. But as her story worked its way out on paper (computer files, I [...]

Writing Your Book, part III: The Opening Pages

Over the past two weeks we’ve discussed the preparatory stages of writing our novels. We began with the research, worldbuilding, character development, and, for those who choose to do so, plot outlines that we do at the outset. Last week we talked about establishing voice at different levels — Authorial, Genre, Book, Character. [...]

Writing Your Book, part II: Finding Your Voice

This past week, Catie and I both began blog “series” in writing, and it seems that for this week and potentially down the road, there is going to be a fair amount of overlap between our posts.  Catie and I might reinforce each other’s points.  We might disagree.  That’s okay.  Getting more than one perspective [...]

The Power of Reunions

This was a special weekend for me.  One of my very closest friends from college — my former roommate and music partner, actually — came to visit.  We talked and played guitar and laughed all weekend, and had a truly wonderful time.  We’ve seen each other many times since college — at least once a [...]