Solving Poor Internet Access for Rural Areas

 Like many folks who live in the middle of nowhere, I was stuck with limited options for broadband Internet access. In this case, “limited” meant none at all based on the FTC’s definition of 25Mbps. I could go with satellite access, which was expensive, exceptionally buggy, and has customer service ratings that rival Comcast in […]

Guy Goes to the Races

Thanks to the Skip Barber Racing School and VetTix, I had the chance to ride along with a race car driver around Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a combination of tight turns similar to Formula 1 events plus the long straightaways and high-banked turns of a NASCAR race. I recorded the […]

World Building Tools for Authors and Game Masters

 Science fiction and fantasy rely heavily on placing the reader in a world that envelopes them like a warm blanket. That blanket might be a comforting hug from Hermione or the backblast of covering fire from a Gauss gun. It’s the responsibility of the author to craft a world that follows its own rules and […]

Master of Fine Arts

 This Saturday, December 15, 2018, I get to walk across the stage to receive my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. It’s been an interesting journey, and not where I thought I’d be after a 35 year career in the technology, avionics, and IT fields. Just goes to show that you’re never too old […]

About the Fictorians

 The Fictorians, a writer-centric blog that was publishing material of interest to authors every weekday, has been in a bit of a holding pattern until January 2019. They’re looking for established authors who have attended Superstars Writing Seminars to join and participate with a blog post every four to six weeks. There are only a […]

2018 Scribe Awards Results

 On Friday, July 20, 2018, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (iamtw.org) announced the winners of the Scribe Awards, the professional organization’s annual “best of” list at San Diego Comic-Con. A novel I co-wrote with Peter Wacks and Josh Vogt, Solar Singularity, was a finalist in the Original Speculative Fiction category. Alas, we didn’t win […]

Angels & Heroes Comicon

 The inaugural Angels & Heroes Comicon took place on April 28, 2018 in Greenbrier, Arkansas. I was their Author Guest and Tonya was a featured cosplayer and author. They have one of the best taglines for a charity-based con: I fight cancer. What’s your superpower? The charity had many events lined up during Cosplay Con […]

Review: Fullmetal Alchemist (Live-Action Movie)

 Fullmetal Alchemist, the Netflix flick. Quick reaction and some minorish spoilerish items ahoy:   Nowhere near as good as the original or Brotherhood, but that’s to be expected when squishing an anime from 50+ episodes down to a ~2hr movie. Folks who are not familiar with the anime will probably think it’s fine, but there’s […]

WhimsyCon 2018

 Updated schedule for WhimsyCon on March 2-4. Should be a lot of fun and I hope to see you there in Denver, Colorado! Creativity Roundtable Fri Mar 2 8:00:pm – 8:50:pm What drives creative people, inspires us, keeps us going when the muse has gone out for pizza and left us sitting at our desks…alone…in […]

Shifting Your Goals

 January, the traditional month where folks set some goals and a week later forget them, is only weeks away. Writers, however, tend to try to reach some lofty goals for a while longer, probably spurred on by the lingering caffeine high from NaNoWriMo. Here’s the thing — goals should not be set in concrete. I […]