At least, so sayeth the thoroughly indoctrinated peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He was very well versed in Marxist ideology, that one, if a little hazy on the details of how stuff would actually, you know... work. Which is a problem with a lot of fiction, particularly fantasy (since it tends to... Continue Reading →
Signs You’re Writing A Difficult Book
Difficult books happen to everyone. Sometimes books that are difficult to you aren’t difficult to anyone else. I.e., a book feels difficult to you because you are touching on emotions that were evoked by some terrible incident in your past and therefore catch you on the raw. Or you write about some concept that’s particularly... Continue Reading →
It’s Tuesday and I got nothing. . .
Actually, what I have is a deadline for finishing a novel that is long past and, finally, the novel is letting me write it. Add in spending a large chunk of yesterday working on an upcoming author event for our local library, the largest and most exciting one we've ever hosted before, and my brain... Continue Reading →
W.I.P.
Okay so I got back late from sea, after a nightmare extraction (AKA getting the boat out of the water and off the beach) so here merely a piece of raw prose. Pre-first draft even. You can all have fun telling me how terrible it is. CHANGELING’S ISLAND Dave Freer CHAPTER 1 “I just can’t... Continue Reading →
Mixing up Writing Sessions
Hi, everyone. I have been having fun with another writing-exercise analogy. Getting back into the exercise after the usual excesses of the Christmas and New Year break, I found myself musing on the best ways to develop body strength. For years I would just attack workouts, pushing myself to the point of exhaustion. That’s great... Continue Reading →
Mistakes Are Easy
Mistakes are really easy. It's getting it right that's difficult. At the moment I'm thinking that the chapter and a half of book 2 of the new piece is going to need to be rewritten and slowed down massively. Why? Well, so far, my main character has been ambushed, escaped through sewers/drains, emerged in a... Continue Reading →
Ain’t No Business Like Writing Business
Okay, if you’re reading Mad Genius, you’re probably a reader. You might also be a writer, but at the very least, you’re likely a reader. So, how do you read. (Ah, ah, the gentleman on the second row who just said “from left to right and top to bottom” has earned the duct tape... Continue Reading →
What are they thinking?
I've been busy this past week trying to finish the novel I'm working on as well as working on edits for NRP. So I'll admit I haven't been online as much as I usually am and, judging by some of the stories I've read this morning trying to prepare for this post, it's probably a... Continue Reading →
So where to from here?
Thank you for all the airline reading comments. I wanted to know because a critic once described one of my books as airline reading - which as they are likely to make you laugh, perhaps they aren't. I think it was meant to sneer at the fact the book was entertaining but not 'deep'. Possibly... Continue Reading →
Re-establishing the Flow
So. The beginning of the year again. I’m still getting used to writing 2013 dates. They seem supremely weird for some reason. Perhaps I have been unsettled by the odd number. I guess the ‘3’ rather than the ‘1’ or ‘2’ really means this decade is going to scroll away like the others. In any... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 