This is an article about preparation, or to be more exact, the lack of said preparation. Standing at the edge of one my previous jobs, I could easily see the Front Range of the Rockies stabbing their defiant fists into the air. The most prominent fist is Pikes Peak, what the brochures call “America’s Mountain.” One…
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Inspiration: noun \ˌin(t)-spə-ˈrā-shən, -(ˌ)spi-\ A divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation. (Merriam-Webster) Inspiration. That divine breath of literary genius given to us as sacred revelations wherein we all ascend from poor writer to rich author. Or maybe it’s just the crap that…
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I sat and stared at holes in my wall one day before I started writing this. I’m pleased with how everything flowed together. In 2021, this story won in the Adult Category for the All Pikes Peak Writes annual competition, sponsored by the Pikes Peak Library District.
Psychologists and self-help gurus like to throw around the word resilience like a panacea: it’s supposed to be something like aloe—a natural salve that works and you don’t need to know why. I agree. ‘Nuff said? Of course not. Resilience, as defined, is an ability to bounce back from difficulties, often emotional. Resilience is something…
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Focus, man. Focus. I don’t do this often, and I don’t know if I’ll do it again. Feel free to mark this day as “weird.” “So, what’s new in the WORLD?”Asks a demon in my midst.“Funny thing you should ask,”I breathe out from behind my bars.“I was going to ask you the same.” That was…
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I have a file of ideas on my computer called “brainstorm.” It’s not the most clever name for a file, nor is it formatted in a way that would keep my obsessive-compulsive personality happy. However, it is a Very Useful File (if I may used a Pooh-like term). You probably have one, too. What I…
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Characters in novels have lives. Long lives. Lives outside of everything we’ve ever written or plan to write. How do you keep all that in check when developing a world? When I wrote my first few novels (some of which have been published, others hidden deep in the drawer of “to be rewritten later”), I…
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There have been, at different times in my life, three or four or even five different novel ideas competing for attention–all out of focus. In March 2006, I tried to analyze how to deal with this mess. The following is a post I made on my original blog (with some tense changes here and there). …
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Personalized fiction. Hmm. I think most authors have heard the adage “write what you know,” but how many really apply that to themselves if they’re not writing a memoir? I decided long ago to just “write what I know,” and if I don’t know something, then it’s time to be educated. Sketches from the Spanish…
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The outline of a novel is a personal thing. When I was in school, I clearly recall being forced to develop outlines for papers, to include Roman numerals and all. Many of you probably did this, as well. You know the drill: I. Introduction II. First Important Thing A. First point of the important thing…
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