I haven’t done a piece on fiction writing for a while now, and as I’m struggling to get my wheels back on the track, it seems like a propitious moment for a reflection on one of the necessities of effective storytelling. *** Readers have frequently complimented me on my efforts at characterization. While …
Category: fiction
Jul 28 2022
What Cannot Be Reported As Fact
…can sometimes be depicted to good effect in fiction: Then there was the matter of process. How the election was run. How it was administered. The frenzied push to ramp up absentee and mail-in ballots and ramp down verification, especially in battleground states. How many states changed election laws? Hint: a lot. How …
Jun 30 2022
A Month Of Free Fiction!
(Scroll down for new posts.) Smashwords, where I first listed my fiction for sale, is having a Summer Sale that will extend from July 1 through July 31. My novels will be part of it: The Realm of Essences Series: Chosen One On Broken Wings Shadow of a Sword Polymath Statesman The Spooner Federation …
Jun 27 2022
Christian Love: A Primer
Every now and then I get a burr under my saddle, and I have to vent. (“No, really?”) (Shut up, you.) Today is such a day. I hope you’ll indulge me, as the subject matter is critical to the future of Mankind. Yes, the subject is the one in the title of this piece …
Jun 06 2022
Fiction Can Be Useful!
No, really. Have a passage from one of the most adventurous science fiction novels of the Twentieth Century: There was something leaning against a rock. At first I couldn’t make it out: a pink mound with hair trailing down one side. We got closer and the mound became five hundred-odd pounds of woman …
Jun 03 2022
An Endorsement
By and large, I avoid dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. When I want to wallow in misery, I just peer out the back window at my lawn. (When I want to wallow in other people’s misery, I go to a news website or pick up the most recent edition of the New York Times.) But …
May 26 2022
Looks Like I’ve Done It To Myself Again
Oh my dear, sweet, all-forgiving God. Oh most gracious ruler of the Universe, whose will brought forth the worlds and whose love enfolds them still. Why do You permit me to agree to these things? I’ve told myself over and over: Do not respond positively to a review request. I’ve reminded myself of …
May 01 2022
Need To Know
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. …
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, …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
