Sunday, May 08, 2011

Sample: Cryoskip's Footprints, part 1

It's been a few weeks since I put a writing sample up, and since I have just released Cryoskip's Footprints, it seemed like the obvious choice for a new sample. Enjoy!
Cryoskip's Footprints
Striding into the dingy club, Derek took in the scene at a glance. It was typical of all the backwater dives he had seen countless times in his travels, full of people drinking to forget how crappy their life was out here in the wastelands. Three large men sitting in the corner took a mild interest in his

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Cover For Next Atomic Wasteland Story

I haven't spoken much about it on the site, as writing it has been driving me nuts :) But I'm just about to send the next Atomic Wasteland story (Cryoskip's Footprints) off to Lynn (Red Adept) for editing.

My original plan was to finish the story by the end of February, but for some reason the words for this story have been hard to find. Thankfully, I've finally managed to extract them from my brain and get them into the computer. After some revising (and excellent feedback from my beta

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Friday, April 08, 2011

Flash Fiction: Pandemic

I originally wrote this piece for Karen Berner's Bibliophilic Blather. Each month she has a specific theme for flash fiction submissions to her site. The theme for April is 'Spring Fever'. I had been watching too much House MD when I read the theme, and this was the result. The original post with the story is here.
Pandemic
Dr John Andrews looked through the transparent wall in his office toward the hospital entrance below. Hundreds of people filled the normally clear area, all seeking

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Two New Interviews

I've been interviewed again! Two interviews have gone live this week.

The first interview is over at Indie eBooks, a new site run by Nadine Earnshaw that has just started up. The second interview is over on Tales and Troubled Times of a Hungry Author, run by Roberto Scarlato. Both interviews feature "The Outsider" as the book I'm talking about.

Thanks to both Nadine and Roberto for interviewing

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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Sample: The Outsider, part 2

This weeks sample is the second scene from The Outsider. If you missed it, you can read the first scene here.
The Outsider (continued)
Jacob stood with the town doctor and watched as the man slumbered restlessly on the bed. Jacob’s young daughter watched the stranger with a combination of fear and curiosity from the doorway, while his wife stood behind her and looked on disapprovingly.

“So, he will recover then?” Jacob asked.

“Oh, yes,” replied Doc Tanners. “Luckily, his

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Saturday, April 02, 2011

#ROW80 Round Two - The Goals

So, another round of ROW80 is upon us. And now it's time to come up with some specific goals to work toward for this round.

I may add to this list of goals, but for the moment I'm going to go with the following:

Complete a short story at the end of every month - I don't really have an option with this goal. I've made a booking with my editor to submit a short story at the end of every month, so I need to get those stories written.

Get Gears of Wonderland to beta readers by the end of

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Friday, March 25, 2011

#ROW80 Week 12 - The End (Round 1)

Oops. Don't you hate it when you think you have a few more days than you actually have :)

For some reason, when I wrote last Sunday's post I thought there was still a full seven days left for round 1 of ROW80. Of course, thinking about it that doesn't make sense, since then it would be 84 days (12 x 7), and not 80 days.

Never mind. I made good progress for my weekly goal of finishing off the short story. I still have a couple of thousand words left (I've got to throw out one scene now

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hard Deadlines

One of the killers for any sort of project that you do in your own time is the lack of a deadline. If there is no time limit for when something has to be done, you're relying on yourself to get it done in a reasonable time.

For some people this isn't a problem. They're self-disciplined enough to get the work done in a reasonable time. But for the rest of us, we're not so lucky :)

Challenges like Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) are fantastic for helping to set goals with a time limit.

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