Category: Blog

Does anyone know of any authors who’ve had more than 36 stories published in Daily Science Fiction?

I’m trying to figure out if I’m the author who’s had the most stories published there, because it’s looking to me like there’s a good chance I am, and that seems worth knowing. Continue reading “Most Published Author in Daily Science Fiction”

It’s really hard with a free-form career like fiction writing—that also keeps changing under your feet—to know what to focus on to keep moving upward, or at least give yourself the best chance of moving upward. There are so many different paths and all of them are uncertain. And there are limited role models to follow, given how much the field keeps changing.

I am so burned out. I’ve been writing at a breakneck pace for more than a year, and I’ve had the kids home, bouncing off the walls, dealing with loss and fear caused by the pandemic for nine months.

But I keep dragging myself forward on the novel I’m writing.

I keep wondering if I should take a break. Surely, after writing three novels in fourteen months, I’ve earned a break?

And yet, writing is what holds me together. Believing the books I write matter is what pulls me forward. And I need to be held together and pulled forward.

Apparently, today is the day that I can’t take it anymore and start ranting wildly about Universal Basic Income.

Years ago I was asked while on a panel at a convention, how can a writer best go about making money with their book?

My answer remains the same:  put your book aside, go into politics, and fight for Universal Basic Income.

Writing is a terrible, awful, horrible way to make money, and it always will be. Continue reading “Universal Basic Income is Tenure for Writers”

#Scream Spoilers

If I had infinite money, I’d pay to get the people back together to make season 3 of the original Scream tv series. I want that season, revealing the original Lakewood murderer who pinned everything on Brandon James so much. Continue reading “Lakewood Scream”

It’s kind of incredible how quickly the seven-year-old transitioned from having to be forced to sit down at the piano and put their hands on the keys… to just constantly practicing of their own accord, as soon as the piano teacher started assigning Christmas songs.

If Sesame Street parodied Scream…

—Elmo gets a phone call asking his FAVORITE letter and number
—Oscar dressed in a white sheet as a ghost shows up and tells Elmo to “Get out of here!!!!”
—title screen appears reading “SCRAM”

Watching Scream with someone who doesn’t want it spoiled but accidentally learned the killer’s name adds a whole new level. Every time the killer’s onscreen, I’m thinking, “No, no, no, don’t call them by name!” And whenever the name is mentioned, “oh no, did they hear that???”

I’m so glad to have Grey’s Anatomy & Station 19 back after all these months.  They’re such a bright spot in my week.

The thing about great art is that it helps the chaos of life make sense. And when you find a piece of art that can do that for you… it’s like a friend, a teacher, a warm comforting blanket, and a place where you can go to feel safe all at once.

I know every episode of Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t been brilliant. But many of them have been, and it’s grown over the years

And there simply are stories you can tell after 16 years (+ 6 of Private Practice & 3 of Station 19) that you just can’t tell without that kind of history. Continue reading “The Value of Longevity as Demonstrated by Grey’s Anatomy and Baby Yoda”

The 13-year-old was worried the Scream tv series would be ruined for them because they remembered me mentioning the season one killer’s name ages ago as a good cat name. Sure enough though, three episodes in, the kid still hasn’t noticed the character with that name.