Traditional Or Indie? A Fundamental Question Should I find a traditional publisher for my brand-new baby book, or self-publish? It’s perhaps the first fork on the twisty road from writer to author. In 2020, it is a more relevant question than ever. Here are some factors that led to my decision, in case it helps […]
Get The Goods! Sign up for an occasional email with the inside track on fun facts, research discoveries and book news. Mobile massage therapy will sure beat hell out of paying clinic rent. So went my thinking as I decided to become a traveling therapist. I was both right and wrong about that, it turns […]
In 2002, Jason Padgett was a fun-loving guy who lived for the next party and thought that math was stupid. A midnight mugging that knocked him unconscious changed everything. A Giant Video Game As the concussion faded he started seeing the world around him as an unending flow of pixels and tangents. The world had […]
When I picked up the latest Lee Child novel, Never Go Back – well, grabbed it out of my wife’s hand as she walked through the door – and opened it up to the first page, after the first sentence I had to pause. ‘He nailed it,’ I thought to myself, ‘the bugger did it […]
I had the great good fortune to receive an advance reader’s copy of Open Secret by Nelson, BC writer Deryn Collier. This is Deryn’s second book, and it has confirmed what I already suspected – this lady is the Louise Penny of the West. Open Secret was a delightful read. Deryn’s stories take place in […]
We can remake the world as we see fit. One of the main joys of writing stories is the ability to rewrite the rules – from giving voice and sensibility to farm animals to reimagining the laws of physics. One minor drawback – we have to follow the new rules we’ve made. It’s called plausible […]
This story is great. No, it’s garbage. Everybody will want to read this. Nobody will get past the first page. I’m going to be rich and famous from this stuff! I might as well give up right now. Sound familiar? I’m convinced that writing fiction is one of the most manic-depressive jobs in existence. Every […]
This story about one prairie daughter’s journey to adulthood through the crucible of World War 2 wrapped me up for three days of a delightfully deep read. It has just about everything I look for in a book – excellent writing, engaging characters, a storyline that pulls you along, and something interesting to learn. I […]