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Interview: filmmaker Lisa Stock

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Alex in creativity, faeries, filmmaking, interview, Lisa Stock, movies, pop culture, SyFy, Titania film, writers, writing, writing advice | 2 Comments

When it was announced a few years ago that Joss Whedon would be doing the new Wonder Woman movie, I was of the unpopular opinion that he was dead wrong for it. My main reason was that, in all the shows he’s produced and scripts he’s written, he has yet to show he can write about anything other than boys and girls. Wonder Woman, as her name implies, is a woman: an adult. Whedon’s female characters, from Buffy to River … →

The grubby heirs of Excalibur: swords in the world of Eddie LaCrosse

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Alex in Dark Jenny, Eddie LaCrosse, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, Sword-Edged Blonde, swordfight, writers, writing | 4 Comments

My friend Teresa Frohock, author of Miserere: An Autumn Tale (my review is here), asked me how the idea for naming Eddie LaCrosse’s swords came about. I thought this might be interesting to others as well. First came the idea of writing the initial novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde, as if it were a 40s detective novel. This was after years–well, actually decades–of trying to tell the story as a traditional epic fantasy, and having it just not work. So, once … →

Writer’s Day #9: C2E2 report

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Alex in conventions, writers, writing, writing advice | Leave a comment

  In my latest Writer’s Day video, I share some of my experiences at C2E2 in Chicago, by far the biggest convention I’ve ever attended.    

The Hum and the Shiver eBook sale!

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Alex in eBook sale, Hum and the Shiver, Tufa, Wisp of a Thing | Leave a comment

As the release day for the second Tufa novel, Wisp of a Thing, approaches, you can now get the eBook of the first, The Hum and the Shiver, for only $2.99.  It’s a limited-time offer, so hurry before supplies…oh, wait, it’s an eBook, they’ve got plenty.  But the sale ends June 7, 2013! Click here to order from Amazon for the Kindle, here to order from Barnes and Noble for the Nook!    

Guest blog: Dale Short on his film Recovering Racist

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Alex in biography, filmmaking, fundraiser, guest blog, interview, movies, politics, video trailer | 1 Comment

I was honored to be the first contributor to this documentary Kickstarter project, and rather than attempt to convince you myself, I asked acclaimed author Dale Short, one of the people behind the film, to explain where the idea came from and how important it is.  And please check out the video trailer at the end of his article and consider making a contribution. ***** We like to think of ourselves as rational people, in control of our destiny by … →

Book Review: Paperback Writer by Mark Shipper

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Alex in music, reviews, writing | Leave a comment

“Rock and roll is a joke and the joke is on anyone–performer or audience–who ever takes it for any more than that…” (p. 11) Writing about music, as I’ve said before, is tricky. The ones who do it well–P.F. Kluge, Sheila Kay Adams, Lee Smith–take it very seriously. So it follows that writing a parody about music, one that’s simultaneously respectful and hilarious, is even trickier. Writing that parody about the greatest rock and roll band ever, the Beatles, is … →

All That Jazz: a Reevaluation

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Alex in writers | Leave a comment

The thing about great art is that it can mean different things to you at different times in your life. And that point was driven home to me this weekend, when on a whim, I put in the 1979 Bob Fosse film All That Jazz. I’ve always enjoyed this film for its sly self-parody, depicting choreographer/director “Joe Gideon” (aka Bob Fosse, but played in the film by Roy Scheider) simultaneously trying to launch a Broadway show and finish editing a … →

Review: My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Alex in family, folk music, folklore, reviews, writers, writing | Leave a comment

Writing prose about music is, to borrow an analogy, dangerously close to trying to teach a fish to ride a bicycle. If you could say it in regular words, there’d be no need to sing it. And music can do some things far more efficiently than any other art form. For example, it takes over seven hours to tell the three-generation story of the Corleones in the three Godfather films; Steve Earle covers the same amount of territory in less … →

Help Needed: Reward Offered

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Alex in contest, Hum and the Shiver, Tufa, video trailer, Wisp of a Thing | 1 Comment

I need your help. Specifically, I need the help of my Appalachian-area fans. I’m putting together the release trailer for Wisp of a Thing, completely different from the pre-release trailer you can see here. It’ll have all-new music, and all-new video. And it’s basically done. Except for one thing. I need one shot of the mountains, something similar to the pictures below. More specifically, I need five seconds of scenic video, because believe me, there’s nothing in Wisconsin that can … →

What Does Revising Look Like?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Alex in creativity, fantasy literature, movies, novel, Red Reaper, storytelling, writing | Leave a comment

  The photo above is a page from the in-progress Red Reaper novel I’m writing with Tara Cardinal. The print text* is the first draft. All the notes are corrections for the second draft (or first revision, if you prefer). This passage had some interesting challenges. Tara wrote it before she turned it over to me. Since this story is being told in first person by the character Aella, the voice has to be consistent throughout, and my first job … →