The hardest part of the writing life isn’t about digging up a worthy story, finding time to write, polishing your prose until it shines...

The Darwin Elevator Jason M. Hough The world has one outpost free of the plague. It’s in Darwin, Australia, where a mysterious and...

This post is a repeat of one in my Writing for Introverts series. (To read them all, see “Blog Categories” in the side bar.) I’m...

Snappy chapters and still a deep read. What’s the best kind of chapter? I’d like some feedback. I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the...

Recently someone told me that they’re a finalist in a writing competition at a major  conference. They were excited, and I was excited...

Lucca, Italy. I got lost here, once for a bad hour or so. They built these winding streets to confuse an invading army. And tourists! My...

I’m having a fascinating time moving into the world of the fantasy novel. How lucky we are in SF/F to have such a diverse genre to play...

I must confess I do not know. And, mind you, I’m writing my twelfth novel. It’s not as though I’m unprepared. I have an impressive...

Right now on Black Gate magazine: Mucking with the Mundane, my take on fantasies set in alternate historical periods. How do authors get...

It was an up and down week. It’s not the week I would normally talk about. But these are the scenes from the cutting room floor, the...

I have no idea how the brain works, but in a novel-writing brain (er, mine at least) it works from convergence. Or at least that’s my...

Musing today on that sage advice, write what you know.  Sounds like a good idea, but is it? Not if we take it too literally. We don’t...

Dear readers and friends,My blog is changing. I’ll be sharing more personal perspectives on the writing life rather than teaching...

Dear readers and friends,My blog is changing. I’ll be sharing more personal perspectives on the writing life rather than teaching...

Cover of a recent favorite fantasy book, N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. When people ask me why I write science fiction and...

The question might be asked. And it was, on SF Signal this past week. Chiming in were Tobias Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, Harry...

OK, looking back on the year, what were the truly memorable moments? Here is a judicious and nuanced analysis of my year, based upon the,...

The other day a writer who had only a few short stories published confessed to me that he felt rather worthless. All this work and no...

What makes a great Christmas gift? Well, what am I going to say, except: A book! The year brought me fewer great reads than I wished for,...

We are a distracted society. Amid phones in our hip pockets, movie must-sees, and political blather, it’s hard to concentrate on any one...