I know I have spoken of the outlining process before, but I have recently had an experience with outlining that I feel it is worth discussing. As I have said before, outlining can be the most fickle part of the writing process. There are times when I outline like a demon, going through an entire novel’s planning in the space of a few days, while other times I can look at an outline for hours and not put a single…
Feature Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash A little over two months ago, I announced that my next work would be a new version of “Hidden Desires”, a novel I published early in my writing career. I made the announcement under the mistaken belief that I could tweak and adjust in short order, intending to reissue the improved version in the first week of the new year (in my younger, formative years, I was judged immature and naive, traits that still seem…
Above image by Theo Crazzolara from Pixabay The new year is here and tradition would have me listing a slew of resolutions concerning my 2024 writing goals. The problem, as I explained in a previous post, is that I am not much for announcing changes and intentions for the following twelve months. At best, my decisions will last two or three months, so why bother? Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay It’s not that I am a lazy person by nature,…
As you read in the title, I have a new book that will be available for sale on Thursday, November 16. The book is entitled Only Exceedingly Shy, and will be available on Amazon Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover, with an audiobook to follow in about March of next year. I would also like to announce a change, as Only Exceedingly Shy will be narrated by the talented Harry Frost! I wish I had a cover to show you, but as usual, I…
Isn’t it funny how time flies? It doesn’t seem like ten years since I published my first book, but I recently passed that milestone. September 1, 2013, was when I published Acting on Faith, my first novel. I’ve come a long way since then, now with more than 50 books published. That journey, and the one in which I am still engaged, has taken my life in a different direction from anything I might have expected. This past summer, I knew…
I’ve seen lots of movies about AI run amuck. The Terminator was an early one, and those movies were good for about the first three, then there was The Matrix, where the first was good while the rest (haven’t seen the fourth) were pretty much abominations. I tend to like dystopian, disaster, thriller movies, as they tell stories about the human spirit and people rising to the challenge, even if the scripts are not often the best and some of…
In this episode of Funny Friday, I thought I’d talk about funny as in “weird” rather than funny as in haha. I’ve often spoken about the different parts of the writing process and how I do in the various parts. I do pretty well in outlining, but it’s fairly hot and cold. If I get an idea, I can run with it, but it will sometimes take me a while to get into outlining a story. Editing, proofing, grammar checking…
I have been working on a novel since April, and I can finally see the light at the end of this particular tunnel. “If Not For the Entail” is my best composition yet, if you believe those who have read it through to the end. The plot revolves around Elizabeth Bennet’s efforts to save the family estate from a fraudulent ownership claim. I sent the manuscript to the editor today, and I plan on publishing somewhere around the third week…
Artificial intelligence seems to be all the rage now. It is not a new concept; Science fiction authors have written sentient robots into their stories since the beginning of the twentieth century, if not before. In my humble opinion, Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” is one of the best series ever written, and his protagonist is a self-aware robot, governed by his Three Rules of Robotics, although the revelation of who he is comes late in the series. In the Star Trek…
I began my writing career, such as it is, in 2017. My brother, Jann Rowland, was doing well as an author, so why couldn’t I? How hard could it be? I had always been an avid reader, so why not treat the world to my unique humor and sarcastic wit? I won’t describe the rude awakening I had upon publishing my first literary masterpiece, but the reviews were unflattering, to put it mildly. Almost every part of my storytelling was…