An Excerpt from World Enough and Time
When Dmitri meets Jay on a dating app, their connection is instant—intense, electric, and deeper than either expected. But Jay isn’t who he claims to be, and when his out-of-this-world secret comes to light, it shatters Dmitri’s understanding of reality. For Jay’s people, love is considered a dangerous defect—a personality disorder to be cured. But he’s already fallen hard for Dmitri, and walking away isn’t so simple. As their lives […]
Personal Work/Life Balance
Whenever you try to live a life where you are producing creative work, there is a trap you can fall into. At least I do, all the time. I look at my rate of productivity, do some math by determining the available hours I have, and make goals for myself. This is not, in itself, a bad thing. I am a planner, and nothing would get done otherwise. However, just […]
Your Support System
No one is an island, least of all creative people. All of us who are engaged in creative work need to have lives that support that work. But what does it mean to have a support system? What forms can that take? A major kind of support, and perhaps one of the most important, is the support of the people in your life, at least some of them. […]
The Unbearable Beauty of Circular Progress
It would be nice sometimes if life worked according to video game rules. You could overcome the challenge, level up, and be able to use that new skill in subsequent levels. And to a certain extent, it kind of does work like that. You usually only have to learn how to ride a bike once, for example (as long as it takes you). Driving also tends to get better as […]
How to Establish a Regular Writing Routine
Everybody has the same advice if you want to accomplish any sort of major creative endeavor, whether it’s becoming a published author or creating award-winning macrame projects. The advice is Make it a part of your routine. I’m going to focus on establishing a writing routine here, but some of this advice is good for any kind of creative project. The first thing you need to do is take a […]
More Self-Publishing Questions Answered
My last post went over the basics of how Self-publishing works. But there are a lot of other things you need to make decisions about. Here are some things you need to think about when you start your self-publishing journey. What’s an ISBN Anyway? An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is the identifier your book will carry in various retail systems. It’s how the system identifies it. You need one […]