by mike | Apr 5, 2012 | Books, Bookstores, Fantasy, Research, Writing |
What? No, this isn’t about THAT first time. This blog is about writers, and writing, and fantasy, and horror, and stuff like that. Besides, that would be telling. This is about the first time I wrote a novel, and since I’ve written over thirty of them, I had to take a...
by mike | Apr 1, 2012 | Books, Fantasy, Horror, Movies, Research, Romance, Sword & Sorcery, Writing |
Who knew? While writing a recent post about Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan and the acknowledged “father” of Sword & Sorcery, I did research to make sure some of my facts were correct. I discovered that a movie had been made about a portion of his short...
by mike | Mar 22, 2012 | Books, Fantasy, Research, Sword & Sorcery, Writing |
Everything I write—everything that just about all novelists write—begins with those two words. I prepare detailed outlines for my stories, so that I always have a pretty good idea of where I’m going. But even before outlining a story, there is the “what if?” I...
by mike | Mar 13, 2012 | Books, Fantasy, Horror, Research, Sword & Sorcery, Writing |
Readers of sword & sorcery, sword & planet, science fiction, fantasy, and horror undoubtedly know the name of Robert E. Howard. For the majority of people, not so much. But just about everyone is familiar with the name of Howard’s most famous creation: Conan...
by mike | Mar 7, 2012 | Books, California, Horror, Research, Writing |
In a January post I wrote about my trip to Downieville, in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, to do some background research for my recently released ghost story, The Burning Ground. Some weird things occurred during my time there, and I mentioned that this wasn’t...
by mike | Mar 2, 2012 | Books, Horror, Horror Movies, Native Americans, Research, Writing |
I actually taught a class with that exact title some years back. For a long time I served as a consultant for the San Diego Unified School District’s GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education). I’d visit middle grade and high school classrooms, talk about how...
