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Rejection and I are Old Friends
We’ve all been there. We took a risk, put ourselves out there–whether it was a story submission, a job interview, a date request–and been told that most horrible of words: NO. If you’ve ever put yourself out there, or are considering putting yourself out there, or if you’ve decided you will never, ever put yourself…
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Handling Jealousy as a Creative Professional
I chose Colleen Hoover as my focus for the first quarter of 2024 because she was objectively successful. Millions of books sold, adored by fans, and a darling of both the traditional publishing and self publishing worlds. As I am also determined to be wildly successful, I chose to dive into Hoover before I read…
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Am I a Dictator?
(Not that kind of dictator.) My writing goals are insane this year. I want to write six new books in a new series as part of a rapid-release independent publishing project to launch next year. In researching the best ways to attempt this, I heard that the fastest writers dictate their books. So I figured…what…
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The Phenomenon that is Colleen Hoover
At a writer’s conference, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Writers House super-agent Daniel Lazar. During the talk, he was explaining what it was like to be an agent, and how tricky it was to pick authors to work with. Because not everyone can do it. He asked all the attendees to…
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What Jack the Ripper Means to Me
In the fall of 1888, in the Whitechapel area of London, an unidentified assailant murdered and mutilated at least five women. From the first murder to the last, terror gripped the city. Newspapers printed grisly details. Letters were mailed to newspapers and the police, claiming credit for the crimes. These letters were signed “Jack the…
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God Himself Doesn’t Have to Sink Ships, Humans Handle it Well Enough
When the Titanic launched in 1912, one White Star Line employee noted “God himself could not sink this ship.” At the time, Titanic was the largest, most luxurious cruise liner to hit the seven seas. The White Star Line was a company owned by J.P. Morgan, one of the wealthiest men to ever live. Initially,…
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The David
The stone hair is soft like his eyelashes, if they too could be carved. He focuses on a white wall— on the psalm he cannot write. He wishes for strands of marble, like spider’s legs, around his staring eyes. Then he may blink Goliath out of the crowd surveilling his flesh. They watch as he…
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Seventy-Three Rejections Later
When you start a story or a novel or a script, you begin with a sense of hope. You hope that your story will touch hearts and minds. You hope you told the story in a graceful fashion. You hope people will read it, at the very least. And sometimes, you know you wrote a…
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1903 E Cache La Poudre
AT RISE: Bare florescent light. Stage is mostly black with painted remnants of two or three previous shows painted on the floor and walls. Bare set. STEVE and JENNY are standing center stage, contemplating their surroundings.STEVE: (Indicates bare stage.) Where was your favorite moment performed?JENNY: My favorite moment that I performed?STEVE: Yeah.JENNY: (Walks to spot…
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The Day the Storm Ends: New Story Published!
I have exciting news. James Gunn’s Ad Astra has just released my short story “The Day the Storm Ends” in their eleventh volume. So if you’re in the mood for some science fiction…please give it a read.
Got any book recommendations?