In the book, Writing Past Dark, Bonnie Friedman examines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a metaphor for what she sees as a common source of blockage for writers – the fear of our creation. In Frankenstein, young Victor pursues his passion obsessively and alienates his family. The knowledge he seeks has greater importance than their fears…
My family has an uneven track record for giving me space while I’m writing. I get better results when I retreat to my writing grotto in the basement, but sometimes I want to be above ground, enjoying radiation from the sun. Once I’m visible, I’m vulnerable to interruption. Having some kind of writing artifacts in…
Once upon a time (2013), I started writing a story about a butch dyke named Buddy who leaves the small town they grew up in and heads to the big city. I started the story during one NaNoWriMo and continued it a year later during the next one. This project has been sitting on my…
I have been a fan of science fiction for a long, long time. I love and respect the genre and its masters so much that I have felt intimidated about the prospect of writing within it. I’ve tried a few times, one story was submitted to the now-defunct erotic magazine, Salacious for their sci-fi edition. …
She woke with a start, gazing around with a confused expression. “Where is this? What’s going on?” She asked in a voice rough from lack of use. I stood up and came to her bedside. “You’re on the Zephretti in the infirmary. Or what passes for it on a freighter.” The girl, who had been…
I often find the my characters tell me what I need to know about them in order to write the story. Not all at once, necessarily, but eventually. As I was getting to know Kevin, the narrator for the novel I’m writing, one thing jumped out right away – this guy was a reporter, a…
This quote is from Marisa Cummings of Creative Thursday. I will eventually have the first line of this quote tattooed to my arm. I have this quote posted on the wall above my desk as an inspiration, as a reminder. The Gatekeepers are Gone. There is no one standing between me and my goals. You…