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Stephen Donaldson once wrote, and I paraphrase, that "good fiction is a blend of the exotic and the mundane". This is never truer than in the creation of characters.

How many of your characters have personality traits of people you've met, people you like, people you dislike or even hate? Can you honestly say your character is pure creation, with no experiential input? I doubt it, and that's OK. A good character grows and evolves with the story, reacts in different ways to different scenarios,...

This painting in entitled, "Elegy" by Louis Kahan, and I was the proud owner of a limited edition print of this piece for many years. I had the chance to meet Louis before he passed and he was as remarkable a man as he was an artist. This man actually fought with the French Foreign Legion - one of his many rare accomplishments!

A great painting or drawing is like a favored sibling or cousin to great literature. Both evoke feelings. memories and thoughts that are either new, or old ones...

Everyone should have a dog, and mine is Blu.

If I spend too long on my laptop Blu trots in and growls at me, reminding me that it's time to play. If I'm too focused on my phone, Blu nudges me with his battering ram nose to let me know that belly rubs are now overdue. If my table is covered with papers with character sketches and world maps and other esoterica, Blu drops one or more of his toys onto my workspace to remind me about what's important - him!

Interruptions are necessary for a writer....

As a child I had access to lots of books and was actively encouraged to read. Which I did. A lot.

At the age of 7 or 8 I attempted to read The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales. I tried and tried but couldn't make sense of the archaic language and turns of phrase. Using the dictionary only helped a little.

Over the span of the next few years I came back to those books, and each time I was able to read a little bit more, understand a little bit more. By the time I got to High School Shakespeare...

Seeming effortlessness.

When an author has done all the hard homework of clarifying physics laws, determining the precise mechanics of spacecraft, calculating detailed demographic and topographic information of multiple worlds, and working out how various beings interact n such a universe, the end effect seems effortless.

As with all stories, a detailed back story and history, a clear plotline and sub-plots, and excellent descriptive and conversational writing are necessary as well. But the...

In Alberta, a writer named Roy
found a book that he thought he'd enjoy;
he read all the words,
thought they were absurd,
and now Roy from Alberta, annoyed!

It happens to all of us. We're browsing a pile of books when a striking cover peaks our interest. It might be striking artwork, an edgy title, a good looking man or woman. Whatever the hook, it works and we end up buying the book.

When we get home and open the book, one of two things happen: it is either even better than we anticipated or it is...

As a writer, how much time do you spend thinking about fonts?

I admit to spending way too much time arguing the merits of Times Roman vs Arial, or Helvetica vs Calibri or which "exotic" font works best for a cover.

Do I bold or italicize my font? Which justification format works best? Will the literary gods smite me down if I choose incorrectly? What if my readers are offended by my font choice?

In the end I usually decide that there is too much noise inside my head over friggin' fonts. Times...

Much has been written about the works of Nostradamus and there is a library of literature covering the so-called biblical prophets. For me, one of the greatest prophets of all time is Terry Gilliam, best known as the animator for the Monty Python films.

The movie, Brazil was released in 1985 - forty years ago! If you haven't seen it do yourself a favor and watch it two or three times. Preferably, with a notepad. Remember the year it was made while you're watching and you will begin to see why...

According to Google these are the most searched keywords on Amazon's KDP platform.

I'm sure I've mentioned the beach, Summer and dogs in my writing before but I don't think I've ever written about a mouse or a unicorn or gifts, specifically. Maybe I need to write a book about unicorns entitled, The Mouse is in the House? Or a book called Gifts for Kids? Sounds more like a catalogue, doesn't it?

One of the great challenges for writers today is "discovery". When so much time is spent on keywords,...

For years I have heard many actors say that they never watch their own films. I always thought they were being a little pretentious but then I realized I do the same thing.

I have written thousands of poems and except on rare occasions I couldn't tell you what was in the poem twenty minutes after I finish it. I am fully invested while writing but when it's done, well, it's done.

Writing books is a little different. I find I read and re-read pages, paragraphs, even sentences, editing my thoughts...

To be honest, I don't understand "writer's block" at all.

When I want to write, I write. Sometimes the writing is great, other times less so. When that happens I edit or rewrite. On rare occasions I scrap the work and start again. Never do I think I can't write.

When a martial artist is learning a kata or form he or she is clumsy at first, slowing improving and getting better until the kata is mastered, or at least mostly so. At no stage does the martial artist think "oh, I can't move my arm"...

Here is Google's AI overview to the search enquiry "writers who inspire other writers":

"Many writers find inspiration in the works and lives of other authors. Some prominent examples include J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen, and George Orwell, all of whom have significantly impacted the literary world and continue to inspire aspiring and established writers. Additionally, figures like Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, and Alice Munro are often cited as...

After months of background notes, creating maps, biographies and histories, I have finally started my new novel, POET. POET will be the first book of a trilogy named the Indrajala Trilogy.

I expect to have the first book finished by mid next year, earlier if the writing gods smile warmly on me.

I will send updates via my mailing list so make sure you're subscribed if you're not already.

I have heard this all my life - "there's nothing new", "there's nothing original anymore", "everything's already been done".

Any artist or musician or writer know that this is simply not true. Yes, there is plenty of "borrowing" and even theft but I would argue that is a necessary part of the creative process. Ask any coder and if they are honest they will tell you they learned by stealing everything they could get their hands on. Creating original content, any content, takes time and it often...

It's a question as old as the movies - which is better, the book or the film?

With some genres, most notably Science Fiction and Fantasy. there is no comparison - the book outshines the movie adaption in almost every respect. With other genres the distinction is not so clear. This is perhaps most with the horror genre.

Three of my all-time favorite horror books are The Exorcist, The Omen and Clive Barker's Books of Blood. The movie adaptions of The Exorcist and The Omen were both excellent in...

Among the many poetic and literary examples of stream-of-consciousness writing, perhaps the most famous are Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, a novel that follows Clarissa Dalloway throughout a single day in London, using stream of consciousness to reveal her thoughts, memories, and perceptions as she prepares for a party, and James Joyce's Ulysses, considered a landmark work of modernist literature. Ulysses employs stream of consciousness to explore the inner lives of Leopold Bloom, Stephen...

They say a picture paints a thousand words but a well-placed word or sentence can paint a complex picture as well.

I remember reading Kevin J Anderson's "Saga of the Seven Suns" series where a Klikiss Robot is explaining things to a human. The human is confused by the explanation and the heart of his confusion is his belief that robots cannot lie. To conclude its explanation the Kilikiss robot says, "I lied."

Two words. Simple, yet powerful when placed in context. The much overused "Jesus wept"...

Today, everyone relies on numbers to quantify sales, readership, and "clicks" for books. There is no escaping the parsing and interpretation of data anymore.

However, it is a travesty to authors and readers alike that certain "books" continually remain on the "bestseller lists", touting themselves as "the most popular books of all time". Of course, I'm talking about The Bible, The Quran and The Book of Mormon.

None of these works is technically a book. Authorship is dubious, at best. How would...

There are almost as many genres of literature as there are people on the planet, and we all tend to gravitate more to one or two of them.

Over the years I have consumed philosophical literature, historical literature, dramas, thrillers, scientific treatises, psychology, astrophysics, genetics, genealogy, and countless other fiction and non-fiction books covering a plethora of subject matter.

But two genres keep me coming back for more, year after year: Fantasy and Science Fiction.

You can...

When it comes to poetry, everyone has a favorite, whether it's the limerick you learned in elementary school or something a little more substantial.

For me, Dylan Thomas' is one of my all-time favorites, and the poem that inspired me to master the Villanelle Form. Here is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night":

Dylan Thomas 1914 – 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know...