No, this won’t be about federal security regulations. And I know a father Who had a son He longed to tell him all the reasons For the things he’d done. He came a long way Just to explain, He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping Then he turned around and headed home again. …
Category: fiction
Apr 08 2022
Some Fiction News
While I’ve had my novels at Amazon in the “KDP select” system for some time, it hasn’t done anything for the expansion of my readership. Therefore, I’ve decided to slough “KDP Select” status, so I can distribute more widely than just through Amazon. I’ve just resubmitted all 19 of my novels to Smashwords: …
Mar 11 2022
Love, Duty, And Adventure
Politics? Bah! Economics? Please! Current events? Enough already! Perhaps my Esteemed Co-Conspirators will provide some such material a bit later in the day. Just now I have storytelling in mind. *** Some years ago, when I was finding my stride as a fictioneer, I had something of an epiphany about plotting. Crafting …
Feb 12 2022
Free Fiction!
For today, February 12 only, until Midnight Pacific time, the most daring science fiction novel since Stranger in a Strange Land: is a free download at Amazon! When the remnant of the anarchist Spooner Federation fled Earth before the genocidal wrath of the States, the fugitives had only the slimmest chance of …
Feb 05 2022
One Week From Today
…on Saturday, February 12, Which Art In Hope, the first novel of the widely praised Spooner Federation Saga, will be a free download at Amazon. Mark your calendar.
Jan 27 2022
Just In Case I’ve Never Mentioned This Before…
…there is a novel – a remarkably brave and optimistic novel – that addresses the possibility of an America without government. It’s clear-eyed; it allows that there would be some difficulties and some dangers. It also allows that such a project would probably have a limited lifetime. But it is among the most cheerful …
Jan 21 2022
Something Else To Not-Care About
My most recent novel, The Discovery Phase, is now available in paperback at Amazon.
Jan 11 2022
Formulas
Enough of the political / current events crap for today. Maybe Linda or the Colonel will ring in with something later. My mind is on matters fictional. I’ve ranted several times, here and elsewhere, about the priority I place on originality. Even before the “indie explosion,” original ideas and approaches in novel-length fiction …
Dec 31 2021
Free Fiction!
On January 1, 2022, my new Onteora County romance The Discovery Phase will be a free download at Amazon! One day only, so get yours while it’s free! And by the way, Happy New Year!
Dec 29 2021
Perfection: Its Uses And Abuses
Once again, I have to take the C.S.O. to a medical procedure a little later. And once again, my “Future Columns” folder is near to bursting. Therefore, in an <sarcasm>unprecedented act of self-assertion,</sarcasm> I’m going to write about what I damned well please. ‘Tis the season to be ornery. *** To me, …
Dec 24 2021
Names
[My Christmas story. Someone – apart from Joseph and Mary – had to be first on the scene. But who might that have been…and what did he take from being first to lay eyes on the Christ Child? – FWP] *** Census has always been an irritant. There are many — I am …
Dec 23 2021
Some Early Christmas Presents To Indie Colleagues
Here we are: December 23, only two days from the Feast of the Nativity, Christianity’s second-biggest holy day. But many Americans’ thoughts remain on entirely secular matters, especially the purchasing and wrapping of presents for others. As one of my parish priests put it, this is the time of year we go running around …
Dec 12 2021
New Fiction
Loren was good looking, well mannered, and highly intelligent. He was broadly competent in applied mathematics, the physical sciences, and computer technology. He could fix almost anything, and would do so happily. Yet for years he’d spent most of his days doing janitorial work at a state college. While at age forty-eight he had …
Dec 06 2021
Stylings
One of my perennial quandaries, which rises afresh every time I complete a novel, is expressed in a simple question: “What is style?” Perhaps even more tellingly, I could ask: “Where is style?” How does it manifest itself in a story? I’ve batted this around with other writers, other avid readers, and my Newfoundlands …
Dec 01 2021
Timing Is Everything
We’ve had enough politics and current events for now. Let’s talk fiction. If you undertake to write suspense or thriller fiction, you will come to grips with the problem of timing: in your staging of the conflicts, in your characterizations of the antagonists, and above all in the selection and narration of events …
Oct 23 2021
The War Is Over
All right, enough of that uplift stuff. Let’s get back to the depressing crap: Yes, do have a nice day.
Sep 21 2021
Hard Times For Superherodom
“What do you mean?” I hear you say. Well, you know how tough it can be when a trade gets overpopulated. Think of America’s legal profession. Today there are more than one million lawyers in these United States. More than a lawyer for every three hundred Americans. There simply isn’t enough legal work to …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
