Book titles are an interesting phenomenon. Some are strictly utilitarian–they are literally descriptive in some way, like Robert B. Parker’s The Godwulf Manuscript or Looking for Rachel Wallace or Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Others are all or part of a phrase or sentence drawn straight out […]
Work-in-Progress Wednesday
Here’s another excerpt from my first ever book, only completely new. It’s a soft-boiled detective book narrated by my younger, smarter, more talented alter ego, Harry Shalan Private Eye. Hope you’ll let me know what you think! Stultz was there but not all there when I got to his room in the ER, trailed by […]
(Re-)Work In Progress
As you know if you’ve been following my blog for a bit that I’m doing major renovations on my previously written books in preparation for re-launching the whole series. If these books were houses, I would be doing a complete gut job, taking them clear down to the studs and, other than leaving the basic […]
Coming Soon: The World’s Oldest Work-in-Progress
Yeah, I have no evidence whatever to back that claim, but it’s way old. Come back here Wednesday to read an excerpt from the new and improved version of my first ever Shalan Adventure, Harsh Prey! If you’ve never read it, you won’t notice anything other than, I hope, how much you like it. If […]
What Is a Pantser, Anyway?
History buffs or aviation buffs or people like me, who are just meaningless trivia buffs, may recall the story of Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Corrigan, according to History.com, was one of the last of the high flying daredevils known as barnstorming pilots. He once flew from California to New York. That’s not where he got […]
Where Did Harry and Dee Come From?
It started one afternoon in seminary when I began writing the opening scene of a book to keep from falling asleep in Old Testament class. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. It all began one autumn day in my college creative writing class. Nope, that’s a lie. It began one day when I came across […]
My Process
Now that I’ve reached a major milestone in the writing of my latest work-in-progress, I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about the process I follow when writing a book. This is multi-faceted, so I may end up having a follow-up or two in which I examine some elements, such as choosing […]
“The Best Sled Ride Ever”, part 2
As promised, here’s part two of my second story about Evan, the awkward middle schooler who, against all odds, got the prettiest girl in school to be his girlfriend. In part one of this story, which you really should read before you continue with this, Evan has invited his new belle to go on a […]
“The Best Sled Ride Ever”, part 1
I recently posted, “Gifts Ungiven”, a story about a boy named Evan who can’t seem to work up the courage to give a gift to his crush. If you haven’t read that yet, you might want to stop right here and read that. You don’t need to have read it for this story to make […]
“Gifts Ungiven”, part 2
Last week, I posted the first half of a story I wrote a while back entitled, “Gifts Ungiven.” If you haven’t read part one, this won’t make sense, so go back to my previous post and read that before you start this one. Here’s the ending I promised. Hope you like it! Let me know […]