While attending Marscon, I had the honor of sitting as a guest on two panels — one a writing workshop and another a panel discussing the roles of heroes and villains. As I’m somewhat new to panels, I was a little nervous and wondering if I’d have anything of worth to contribute.

But as I entered the first panel I quickly relaxed. Allen Wold — a veteran guest and author of numerous titles quickly jumped in providing a clear format for the workshop. Those attending the panel had 10 minutes to write a story hook of 100 words or less. After, the panelists — including me — would provide feedback.

No worries! This was certainly something I could do.

After 10 minutes, there was a little hesitation and then attendees began to read their hooks. In all, I found them to be fantastic and felt good about my comments. It’s a very hard thing giving writing feedback. You want to try and take the writer’s best interest to heart. You, generally, do your best to pierce through the writing to find their goal. Inevitably, your perception is imperfect and you are forced to lean on your own experience. My rule of thumb is to provide suggestions based on the understanding that if it doesn’t work then the writer should toss my suggestion.

Overall, I felt I really helped. Writing can be very difficult. You must proceed with only the power of your imagination and will as a support. It’s seldom that others are even able to give you any kind of a ‘leg up’ even if they want to. It’s always seemed strange to me that something so public must at first be the most solitary event a person can experience. (more…)

Dear Friends,

Welcome to my new and somewhat official blog! As I’ve been using myspace to post story excerpts, I was starting to feel like I’ve been doing a bad job keeping you guys updated. So here’s my best shot at it!

Things have been more than crazy lately. The book is selling very well for a self published work, we’re pushing 40 school visits with this next trip down to GA, and myspace is, for lack of a better word — going off like the Fourth of July.

So much for intros, now let’s get down to nuts and bolts!

This past weekend, I had the honor of being a guest at a local fantasy con called Marscon. Fantastic times! I dropped in Friday to get the lay of the land and completely did not expect what would follow. I was drifting from room to room. There was no sense of urgency as my first panel started at 12:00 noon the next day. So I was acclimating — getting a good sense of the place.

My first impression was one of relaxed fun. The congoers were happy, the staff informal. I stuck my head in the art room and found some fantastic stuff. There were dolls in exotic costumes, mixed portraits of characters from popular TV shows, wood burnings of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.” A very talented artist had paintings of a Native American lady running with wolves. I couldn’t help myself. I smiled. (more…)