General Blog

The entire idea for this website came from reading how “Waiter Rant” and “Bike Snob” were placed by agents and publishers through their blogs. This thought burned in me. Shortly afterwards, I bolted upright in a San Diego hotel room at 2am with the realization that my five year old “Fire and Bronze” promo site wasn’t doing squat. First step, I vowed into the popcorn-ceilinged darkness, was to get an interesting, interactive website up where I could keep information flowing and interest building. Well, I’ve got the interactive and flowing parts down. Next step, I’d put one of my older […]

Last night the cat cuddled with me while I started reworking Early Retyrement. It’s going very slowly. I originally finished this book around 2000 (that’s the oldest filedates I’ve discovered regarding this). Since then, I wrote a published novel, a published help book, three unpublished manuscripts, 200-plus radio scripts, a half-dozen short stories, even some freelanced erotica. In a way, it’s like going back to visit with a younger, cruder me, someone rough around the edges, lacking refinement (and I was 41 then, ferchristsakes!). Amazing to see these windy, twisty, wasteful sentences. Daunting to see my main character (and even, […]

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate. -Thomas Jones (1892 – 1969) One of JB’s and my good friends, Kanchan Banga, is leaving the states to return to Canberra. We met her through her brother, a professional work irritant and time-keeping scofflaw, through her efforts to arrange a surprise party for him (he was). Since then, we’ve gone out to French romantic comedies at the Enzian a couple of times – laughs around the table and all that. She even bought us all a bottle of wine once, a very kind gesture. This being Orlando, we couldn’t go out […]

That seems like. This is an old word-trick of mine I use while editing (and I’m certainly finding it useful while reworking Early ReTyrement). I came up with it a few years back and it’s helping me to pull all sorts of chestnuts out of my old, old novel. Keep these three words in mind while you punch up your work… THAT – I use “that” too often as a filler word and end up tripping over it. “He knew that the only thing that he had to fear was that fear, itself.” SEEMS – It’s a weak word, once […]

Interesting thing – I crossed into the 300-page range on Early Retyrement the other night. Oh, there was still typos and boner phrases (“…a handful of feet away…”). But at this point of the novel, with the story elements coming together for the conclusion, I finally settled down. Not many that’s. Very few seems. And the likes were rather clever. I’m wondering what happened way back in 1999 while I was writing those pages, what outlook shift took place. Before the 300 mark I was still a wannabe, just out of The Writer’s Room, still learning. Yet suddenly, over a […]

Got through the last page of Early Retyrement (my exercise in republishing) last night at 12:30am, meaning I’m going to feel it today (yes, I rode in). Its done and ready to go to the Kindle. Well,except for the editing passes. And the conversion to their file type. And the copyright. And the ISBN. And the cover art. And getting it out posted up. And blogging the heck out of it. But still, its in better shape then a week ago. I’ll be pushing the first chapter when my unpaid editing staff approves of it and tossing up the cover […]

In movies, writers always cruise trendy clubs on a Saturday night, dispensing witty conversation and sizzling truth, a girl on each arm. Me? This Saturday night I’m working out submissions. It’s the routine, the group of three. Go through the guide, read the agency bios, perhaps poke them out online. Date the submission effort (directly in the book – why not?) and paperclip the page to mark it. Now it’s time to start the printing press. Three agency letters (careful, don’t mix the names). Set them on the floor next to the desk. After each letter, kick out a SASE […]

“Be safe”. How many times do you hear this? When you’re heading out for a weekend. Driving further than 50 miles. Going anywhere. Doing anything. Be Safe. Please. I beg of you! When did Americans become such cowards? When people hear I bike to work (with full lights and safety equipment along a route I carefully scouted) they become paralyzed with fear, equating what I am doing to riding a bike across Niagara falls on a cable. Trips abroad, the same thing. It’s always the cringing fear of terrorists, of criminals, of disease, of discomfort, of sadness, of disappointment, of […]

Nothing like adversity to make you realize the important things in life. Two weeks ago, my wife caught on that someone had hacked our credit card. There were “kiddy” purchases to online trendy shops (and a damn food delivery service in Albany and a snack bar in a drug rehab shop in Phoenix). Like a horse with a broken leg, we took out our cards and shot them. You really learn what it’s like to be without credit without that card. Everything is in cash. I’m not a five-buck-lunch-run-the-card sort of yuppie, but there was something I wanted to buy […]