When I was wee lad (well, thirty-something), I had this idea I would be the next great horror writer. I did all things horror: wrote short stories, worked on novels, edited a horror magazine, read works by other horror authors, attempted to buy my way into horror conventions, collected horror action figures (they’re not dolls!),…
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Theme. In contemporary literary studies, a theme is the central topic, subject, or concept the author is trying to point out, not to be confused with whatever message, moral, or commentary it may send or be interpreted as sending regarding said concept (i.e., its inferred “thesis”). Blah, blah, blah. When I wrote my first few…
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I wrote a version of this piece back in 2012, when I first began painting. The original idea was not only to chronicle a piece of work, but tie it to a larger theme… that is, creation is often blind to outcome. I didn’t quite get to the second part in my first attempt, so…
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Write, rinse, repeat….Once upon a time I read a Facebook comment on David Morrell’s page which made me think about what I read more than I normally think about what I read. For reference (I save things), the comment was this: “The Tor editor and I discussed a number of situations in thrillers that are looking…
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I have been looking through various works-in-progress, those novels that–for whatever reason–were abandoned on the side of the road while the mind went looking for a gas station down the street. One of them, Driving the Spike, made me think of two of my favorite reads: Stephen Crane and Japanese Death Poems, as presented in a…
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In the world of art (and I’m speaking specifically of painting), the word pentimento (derived from the Italian pentirsi, which means to repent or change your mind) is a change made by the artist during the process of painting. As a painter, I’ve done this many times, although the discovering of the change or changes…
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This is an old blog post, written in 2005 or 2006. I’m only reposting it here because I think the message is clear: it’s possible to change your habits when you’re ready to change your habits. It’s also interesting to see where I was in my writing career at various points in time. I’ve been…
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I was reading an article on how to describe art, and I came across the realization that while all of my paintings have a story to tell, I did not tell them. Which is kinda odd. Since I am a writer, too. So I think what I’ll do is apply a little snippet of story…
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A book takes times, does it not? On September 23, 2013, Difficult Mirrors was released for consumption (and hopefully joy). That the book took a while to write is not a secret I keep. Journeys are not always quick nor do they always take a straight route. It even had a different name for nearly…
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The art of how to price paintings has always been troublesome for me. While I don’t want to pretend anything I do should be priced up there with Andy Warhol or Bob Ross, I like to think that art can be a) profitable for the artist and b) accessible to most collectors. Assuming, of course,…
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