“Show, don’t tell” is a fundamental principle of writing that can greatly enhance the reader’s experience. Instead of directly stating a character’s emotions or actions, you use descriptive language and actions to indirectly convey them to the reader. This allows them to infer the character’s emotions and makes the writing more engaging and immersive. For […] 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 […] Help! I’m Stuck at 10K Words! First of all, don’t panic. Ten thousand words is nothing to sneeze at and you’re well on your way towards a complete novel. In fact, congratulations are in order. Normally when my brain stops sending typing instructions to my fingertips it’s because there is something it’s still working on. […] 
I recently had someone ask me about Scrivener and other writing tools. They were interested in my opinion of their usefulness as an established author and whether they should purchase some of the tools folks are discussing on sites like Facebook. Scrivener is a great tool but it has a bit of a learning curve. […] 
For years, I’ve gone to conventions all over the continental United States. Some were genre conventions such as MileHiCon, Radcon, and Archon. Others were more media-centric, such as Denver Comic Con and Salt Lake Comic Con. Toss in a World Horror and a few writing conventions such as Superstars Writing Seminars and you’re looking at […] I’ve mentioned Autocrit.com on panels at conventions. It’s a very useful tool that can assist any author when they’re polishing up their manuscript. Even when I’m about to send something off to an editor or getting ready to upload a submission, I usually run it through Autocrit first. It finds many common problems and does […] One of the things authors do is to blindly accept every Twitter follower that falls within their gravitational well. After all, it does look like you have a huge following when someone visits your Twitter profile. Unfortunately, people can see what percentage of your followers and folks you follow are made up of bogus accounts. […]