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World Without Pain: The Story of a Search
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Silent Interviews
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Stories about the mysterious Telepathic Guild Invisible People
The Relocation Blues
Adriana’s Family
The Woman Who Fell Backwards and Other Stories
Apocalypse Bluff and Other Stories
The Senescent Nomad Hits the Road
Invasive Procedures: Stories
Heroes and Other Illusions: Stories
Bedlam Battle: An Omnibus of the One Thousand Series
After the Fireflood
Caliban’s Children
The Fantasy Book Murders
Opting Out and Other Departures
Sunflower: A Novel
America Redux: Impressions of the United States After Thirty-Five Years Abroad
Fear or Be Feared: Fantasies
Writing as a Metaphysical Experience
Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing
The One Thousand: A Novella
The One Thousand: Book Two: Team of Seven
The One Thousand: Book Three: Black Magic Bus
The One Thousand: Book Four: Deconstructing the Nightmare
After the Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Memoir of Greece
The Misadventures of Mama Kitchen: A Novel
Dark Mirrors: Dystopian Tales
Love Children: A Novel
Painsharing and Other Stories
The Dragon Ticket and Other Stories
Category Archives: On Writing
Adaptability in Creative Pursuits
Recently I experienced mounting frustration not because I was blocked and accomplishing nothing, but rather that I was focusing on one aspect of my work and neglecting others. I had determined that I would write at least five hundred original … Continue reading
Remembering Greg Bear
Science fiction and fantasy writer Greg Bear died on November 19, 2022. I was (and am) an outlier, having lived overseas for thirty-five years and only recently, in the past several years, having become acquainted with other writers in the … Continue reading
An Appreciation of Bruce Taylor, aka Mr. Magic Realism
It may seem odd to interrupt the posting of a lengthy three-part book review for an essay on another subject, but I have just received the disheartening news that my friend Bruce Taylor died a few days ago, and this … Continue reading
Book Review: The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five by Tom Roston
Let’s start with the title of this fascinating book, with its reference to the “many lives” of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This is an allusion to the multiple drafts that Vonnegut wrote over two decades before he was satisfied with … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, On Writing
Tagged Kurt Vonnegut, PTSD, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war trauma
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Staying Alive; or, The Martian as an Allegory of the Human Condition
“Never despair, but if you do, work on in spite of despair.”- paraphrase of Edmund Burke Recently I checked out my various accounts so I could assess my financial situation, and I received a devastating shock. It was much worse … Continue reading
Keep Doing What You’re Doing
Often we create resolutions for the New Year because we are convinced that changes need to be made in our lives. Perhaps something is not right; something is out of kilter. We resolve to do whatever needs to be done … Continue reading
Posted in On Writing
Tagged creativity, new year, Parenting, publishing, resolutions, Writing
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The Days It Doesn’t Happen
Every writer has a different approach to the process of putting words on paper. Some who write long novels or major works of nonfiction prepare backgrounds or research for months or even years and then binge-write until the work is … Continue reading
Posted in On Writing
Tagged ideas, Writing, writing advice, writing process, writing routine
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Book Review: Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders
This is a slim volume consisting of a series of essays that first appeared on the Tor.com website. Its premise is that writing fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, can help you survive in the midst of the shit storm … Continue reading
What I Would Do in a Perfect World
I’m talking here about a subjectively perfect world, not a world in which there is no more war, crime, poverty, and so on. I’m talking about what I would do if I could do whatever I wanted, unencumbered by the … Continue reading
Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
An interesting thing happened this morning while I was conducting a bit of research before beginning this essay. If you search online for articles on imposter syndrome, you will find no end of them, including from prestigious publications such as … Continue reading