Swords, Specters, & Stuff
Welcome to My World
I started this blog in January 2012 for one simple reason: I love to write. I named it “Swords, Specters, & Stuff” because I especially love to write about writing, about books and movies in my favorite genres, about authors that mean a great deal to me. But there’s more to it than that, which is why I included “Stuff” in the title. It is “Stuff” that gives me carte blanche to write about anything, which is why you’ll see stories about special trips to Cooperstown, Sedona, and other places; about getting older; about baseball; about the otherworldly way in which I met my soul mate; about the loss of good friends, and so much more. Enjoy! And feel free to leave a comment.
Writerly Energy
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary avocation. I know that when I write my books I’m confined to my guy cave for endless hours at a time each day. So on those rare occasions when writers let themselves out into the real world and fill up a room or two at some...
Do Writers Connect With Their Characters?
The answer to that is a great big YES. At least I do. I’ve been thinking about that a lot in recent months for a specific reason. Let me explain. I just reissued one of my long-ago adventure fantasy novels, The Beasts of Zammar, the fourth book in the Ro-lan series....
The Title Of My New Book Is…“Untitled”
What? No, not me. Before I ever write word one of a new novel I must have a title. More on that in a moment. During my quarter-century or so as a writing coach and editor I’ve had many fiction—and even non-fiction—manuscripts come to me without titles…books that the...
Guilty Pleasures: An American Werewolf In London
Pardon the adverbs, but this 1981 film could be considered “humorously gross” or “grossly humorous.” Either way, An American Werewolf In London has more than enough gore and laughs to entertain during its 90+ minutes of run time. And now I find out, via research, that...
The Haunted Mesa
Holy cow, a semi-retired guy isn’t supposed to be this busy…is he? I’ll soon be evaluating a manuscript for a Buddhist monk (a novel!), and doing a re-read of a 176,000-word epic fantasy novel. I’m writing a new ending for my fourth and final Ro-lan novel (more on...
It’s No Mystery: This Movie Is Funny
In retrospect, I could have written about Mystery, Alaska as one of my many Guilty Pleasures. The thing is, I never thought of this outrageous 1999 comedy, with a cast of solid actors and a load of memorable lines, as a film that I had to feel guilty about throwing in...
Myths And Legends: Kokopelli
Writers who, like me, work in genres such as horror and fantasy often mine the rich folklore, myths, and legends of different countries, cultures, ethnic groups and so on to enrich our stories. I thought it might be fun to explore some of the individual entities drawn...
Writing Humor: It Doesn’t All Have To Be Funny
I’ve learned a lot in life through trial and error, or by accident. More specifically, this can be applied to writing. We could say, in paraphrasing a familiar adage: To err is divine. Case in point: in the ’90s, after a long run of writing and publishing sword &...
Guilty Pleasures: Cat People
You might feel a bit…well, sleazy watching this 1982 “erotic remake” of the 1942 movie that bore the same title but, understandably, had way less sex and violence. I suppose that would qualify it as a guilty pleasure. But even though it wasn’t a box office smash, Cat...
Finding The Time—And The Discipline—To Write
Having been a teacher, coach, editor—and, of course, a novelist—for the past couple of centuries, I have heard it all from wanna-be writers about how difficult it is to make themselves sit down and begin writing a book, which at the least should be 70,000 words in...
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