Monthly Archives: April 2014

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ComicPalooza Houston TX!

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I’m very pleased to be asked to lend a hand in the development of the literary track of ComicPalooza 2014.

I was involved last year and had a great time. This year I’ll be working on a few panels and workshops about writing. We have some great authors out there that will be coming to share their ideas about writing, the writing life and how to survive the process.

John Scalzi, the 2013 Hugo Award Winner for his novel Red Shirts, will be the guest of honor this year and we’re all very excited to hear what he has to share with us.

Mr. Scalzi is a wonderfully interesting speaker. I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 WorldCon and Mr. Scalzi was the moderator and host of the Hugo Award Ceremony. Funny and insightful!

Back to ComicPalooza and what I’ll be doing there. I’m reprising my panel on Good Writing Habits of Good Writers. It was very popular and we had a great panel of authors!

Then there’s the No Holds Barred Critique session. Writers submit about 2,000 words from their current work in progress, we read it out loud and a panel of writers offer opinions. Very fun and many writers received helpful and encouraging advice for their projects.

I’m going to be a panelist on where writers get their inspiration. This will be fun to talk about!

Today, though, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I’m very honored to be a part of Kij Johnson’s Novel Writing Workshop held at Kansas University for the first 2 weeks in June. I need to work on my novel outline and polish up the first 30 pages or so of the manuscript. We have to submit our material in just a few short weeks!!!!!

I’m glad I have the weekend off. This rarely happens.

Hope you find the time to immerse yourself in your worlds today. Write with passion!

On Writing

It’s a Writing Weekend!

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After attending to a few work-related tasks this morning, I can finally get to my writing life. I have off the whole weekend!!!

I’m really psyched about my next project. I’ve been accepted to Kij Johnson’s Novel Writing Workshop at Kansas University this June. I’m nervous and excited! Even though I have one novel nearly complete and another about 30% done, I’m bringing a brand new project to the workshop.

This project really excites me. It’s strictly science fiction. My other works have been YA Fantasy and while I really do love that genre, Science Fiction is my passion. You might ask why I waited so long to start this new project? Well, to be honest, I didn’t think my writing skills were up to the task. I didn’t want to screw it up.

But after writing pretty regularly for the past 2+ years and have critique meeting twice a month, I feel that my skill level has improved. I’m willing to give this next project a try. It’s called “Going Green” and I’ll tell you about it soon.

So this weekend I need to really hammer out my novel outline. This is something I don’t normally do before writing a novel though.

Some authors write an outline of varying degrees of detail. When I start a project, I know the ending, a few turning points in the work, a few of the main characters and what I want them to achieve, and the end. It’s not very detailed and that has worked for me.

I let the work grow as I write, taking me on an adventure. I like it. I learn a great deal when I turn my characters loose and the story grows around them. I admit that there ends up being a lot of extra stuff in there that won’t make the final first draft, but it helps me to really immerse myself in my world and characters.

For this workshop I’m trying something new. I’m going to actually outline a more detailed draft of the novel. It’s a scary thing, but I’m sure the experience will help me grow as a writer.

Then I need to devote some time to ComicPalooza 2014 held in Houston Texas.

http://www.comicpalooza.com

I’ll be on a few panels and workshops within the literary track again this year. It’s a great time and I love talking about writing with other writers. Hopefully I’ll be able to share something with them that will be helpful.

So, here I go! Back to my Writing Weekend!