Jeff Macfee: Five Things I Learned Writing Nine Tenths

I’m a new writer who’s not a new writer.  What I mean is, I’ve been writing a looong time and only now do I have a debut novel. Experience (or age) doesn’t make me unique in any sense, but it adds a certain perspective to this whole ride. My expectations are…lower? Don’t get me wrong, I’m very interested in my books existing. Being read! Selling!...

22h

In Which I Gesticulate Wildly At You For A Variety Of Reasons

Why yes, it is time for one of those shotgun-blast slapdash news-updates. I have more, um, cogent bloggery in mind, but I am currently under *does a quick count* the yoke of FOUR DIFFERENT PROJECTS right now, and am a little bit *eye twitches* overburdened. (To explain, the four projects are: first draft of the Evil...

2w

Dan Koboldt: Fact, Fantasy, and What Lies In Between

There are a lot of rules for writing. One that I hear fairly often is write what you know. That’s fine if you’re writing adult contemporary about a penniless author. It’s less useful if your characters spend their days riding horses, practicing witchcraft, or getting into knife fights. I’m talking about fantasy, the genre where we get to make things...

3w

Alma Katsu: How To Research Your (Historical) Novel

I came to novel writing after decades working as an intelligence analyst. This means I had tons of experience as a researcher because that’s basically what intelligence analysis is: a research project where, at the end, you brief the President  of the United States on your findings. No pressure. As an intelligence analyst, you’re given...

4w

We Have To Talk About Twitter

Twitter fucking sucks. It has for a while, and it doesn’t suck entirely, all the time, in every direction, but in a general miasma-sort of way, it definitely fucking sucks. Elon Musk happens to agree that it fucking sucks, and so he wants to buy it. Only problem is, he and I do not agree about what makes it fucking suck. What he wants to fix are things...

4w

Blackbirds: Ten Years Later

(art by Joey Hi-Fi) So, it was about ten years ago I was in Los Angeles on the day of release for my first original novel, Blackbirds. (For the sake of the pedant, this was 4/24/12.) I was there for a twofold purpose: first, to launch the book that night at Mysterious Galaxy’s Redondo Beach store — a branch that has woefully closed, though...

4w

Munchings & Crunchings: Dust & Grim, Black Cauldron, And Other Grunted News Utterances

HELLO FRANDOS. Want some naturally Wendig-scented updates? Organic? Free-range? Bespoke and artisanal? Here goes. For My Birthday I Demand Proper Paeans In The Form Of Preorders So we’re clear, I don’t actually demand anything from you for my birthday (*stares uncomfortably*), but were you so inclined, I might suggest that for my birthday,...

5w

The Pixel Project: Five Reasons to Give to the Read For Pixels Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women

*Accepts the mic from Chuck.* Thank you, Chuck! *clears throat awkwardly* Hey, everybody! Can y’all hear me? Yes? Okay — here we go: The Pixel Project, a 501(c)3 anti-violence against women nonprofit, has been running our Read For Pixels program since September 2014 when Chuck himself, Joe Hill, Sarah J. Maas, and nine other award-winning bestselling...

Apr 2022

All The News That’s Fit To Digitally Barf Up Onto A Blog

HELLO, FRANDOS. Once again I return from the digital void to grant you a scattered, smothered, covered, chunked pile of steaming news food. It’s like a newsletter, if you subscribe, and if you don’t, then it’s just a regular old blog post. Magic. Off Roadin’ So, if you missed it, and I don’t know how you would have given how often...

Mar 2022

Now Out: The Book of Accidents in Paperback

The time has come! The paperback of The Book of Accidents has taken flight and landed on your doorstep like a wooden owl come to life. May contain: a missing serial killer, a haunted coal mine, an interstitial amusement park, an eerie felsenmeer, a soot-caked spellbook, generational trauma, art as magic, empathy as a weapon or weakness, and the power...

Mar 2022