One of the Facebook Groups I hang out on posts writing exercises. Sometimes they’re geared towards Bizarro, but most of the time they’re just fun practice to improve your craft. One was to generate a scene that had the characters conveying their thoughts and emotions without any dialogue. In ten minutes, I popped something out […] KillerCon, one of the premiere author conventions, holds several competitions for authors to show off their mad skillz. For 2012, they had the Gross-Out Contest, a horror-themed erotica contest, plus a 15-minute competition where authors had to write a story with several key words or phrases. Note: Bad words coming, continue only if you’re comfortable […] Now that we have Netflix, Tonya (my better half) is watching every episode of Cake Boss. Of course, I’m writing, plotting, and planning my short stories and novels while this goofy show is playing in the background. After episode 16 of season 3, where they travel to Italy, it struck me that some reality shows […] 
The protagonist is the one character most writers dwell on. It takes a fine balance between making them likeable and having them seem either arrogant or totally worthless. A good protagonist usually makes or breaks a story, while the antagonist, or villain, is usually tossed in as a reason for the protagonist to exist. This […] 
Is it time to consider writing professionally, at least part-time? Writing professionally means writing as though you need to pay the rent – tomorrow. You need to devote time to your craft. You need to develop effective habits. Remember the old adage, Practice Makes Perfect? It’s wrong – practice makes improvement. Developing a good writing […] One thing that still surprises me is how the horror/dark fiction genre authors treat each other. For the most part, I’ve decided that the genre is really one large family. Perhaps because the genre isn’t as fractured as others, it removes the cliquishness that can pop up in other fields. Science Fiction, for example, has […] Originally posted in the Horror Writers Association newsletter. The vast majority of an author’s fans have a Facebook page. Writing is a business, and savvy authors take advantage of this marketing tool. Love it or hate it, an author should use this avenue for connecting with their fanbase. There are three separate types of Facebook […] There are thousands of websites that contain useful information for authors. I’m going to post a series of sites that can help writers in their never ending quest to improve their craft. I will typically post three at a time. Let me know if you have any suggestions! http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction The Economist publishes a well-established magazine […] 