Recently, while reading the Janet Sternburg-edited collection The Writer on Her Work, I had an unexpected epiphany (I know, epiphanies are always unexpected, but work with me). It was the realization that my life in 2012 is almost exactly Anne Tyler’s in 1980. Tyler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons and The Accidental Tourist, contributed the book’s first … Read More
The Next Big Thing blog tour
My friend from the Heroic Fiction League on Facebook, Violette Malan, graciously invited me to participate in The Next Big Thing blog series. Each author answers the same set of questions, and passes them on to five more authors, who post their answers the following week and pass them on to five more authors, and so forth. You’ll find Violette’s … Read More
Writer’s Day #6
The is the sixth in a series of videos showing how a typical writer (i.e., me) spends his day. But this one is a special edition, shot on location in…well, you’ll have to watch and see. [media url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQaEIkBGVXI&feature=plcp”]
The origin of character names: the Firefly Witch
Tanna Tully, aka the Firefly Witch, was my first continuing character. I had the term “firefly witch” banging around in my head ever since I first learned that witchcraft was actually religion called Wicca. That would’ve been sometime in the 80s, but it wasn’t until the 90s that I tried to create a character around the idea. Because she … Read More
Five Great Movies About Writers
Writers aren’t that exciting to be around when we’re working. What we do–staring into space, muttering to ourselves, typing then backspacing and typing some more–isn’t exactly dynamic. It might be why there are so few good movies about writers actually writing. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of good movies with writer characters in them; that’s fairly common. But … Read More
Interview: Andrew Brasfield, songwriter of Cold Wind
When I began planning Time of the Season, my holiday-themed e-book chapbook, I already had two of the stories. Both the title story and “A Ghost, and a Chance” had been around for a while. But I wanted to write something new, and I’d gotten such a good response from my novel, The Hum and the Shiver, that I decided … Read More
Witchcraft Through the Ages (of TV and Movies, that is)
Witchcraft has an iffy history in film and television. When I first started doing my Firefly Witch stories, one thing I reacted against was the standard image of the pop-culture witch. Leaving aside the blatant “wicked witch” portrayals, it’s still hard to find anything remotely accurate, let alone sympathetic. It’s not impossible, though. One of the earliest films about witchcraft, … Read More
For Halloween, a tribute to real witches
In October, people think about witches. Sure, some people think about witches all year round. But in October, the folks who don’t the rest of the year suddenly do. They see pointy hats, pointy noses, pointy chins everywhere. Cauldrons and black cats and flying broomsticks abound. Except, those aren’t really witches. Those are bits of folklore, handed down from a … Read More
Writer’s Day #3
This is the third of a series of videos showing how a typical writer (i.e., me) works through the day. This one is about revision, and how some writers get nervous talking about fonts on camera. [divider] [media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCoHqZ-YVh0″]
Writer’s Day #2
This is the second of a series of videos showing how a typical writer (i.e., me) works through the day. Ever wonder how those signed copies get from an author to a contest winner? Now you can see. And it involves military jets. [divider] [media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmU7PuQnMYE&feature=g-upl”] [divider]