This was originally on a Facebook post in 2014. I thought it needed to be shared on my blog. First, let me say that I am a veteran. I have a lifetime disability compensation due to injuries I suffered while enlisted, and trauma afterward. I joined the Army because I wanted an education, so that I wouldn’t be stuck flipping burgers the rest of my life. I worked at nearly every fast food chain you can name, and in most other service industry segments. I was only able to get an education because of my military disability and being helped …Continue reading →
I’ve always believed that every ill in our society falls under one or more of three categories: Greed, Ignorance or Zealotry. I was faced with an example of one or more of these while updating my author page on Goodreads. I came across a negative review, quite by accident, of one of my earlier books. Against my better judgment, I read it, and was horrified. The reviewer, obviously, did not like my book, and that’s fine, in and of itself, but this reviewer made statements that were patently false. She claimed the character in my book was “helping a pedophile.” …Continue reading →
How delicious. To be someone else. To reinvent oneself. I’m not talking about who you are at your core, but about characteristics that might not be serving you anymore. I’ve done it several times over, and not only with names. As long ago as my early twenties, I began referring to myself and introducing myself to others by another name. Eventually, it led me to legally change it. Psychologically, that was one of the best decisions I ever made for my health. I maintain that the name-change wasn’t running AWAY from something, but running TO. Seeking identity. I wanted to …Continue reading →
I have missed sitting down with a physical book and reading. My recent decision to take a sabbatical and just allow myself to be creative and deadline-free, had me standing in front of my fiction bookshelf, seeking something new. Something enjoyable. As most of you know by now, I have become quite finicky about my fiction reading. I read so much of my own work in pumping out work in the last ten years, that I have had little time to read for pleasure, and when I do, it’s inevitably just before I go to sleep, and by then, my …Continue reading →
Thank you for your interest in my work. Please enjoy this free download. (click the cover image) Giving it Away: Spoilers as Both Noun & Accusation (Why Book Reviews Matter & How to Write a Proper One) Ironically, in response to one review on this essay, I feel I must point out that this is a FREE essay, not a novel; it does not pretend to elucidate completely the subject at hand; it’s about 10 pages on the topic. I am too busy writing full-length novels to give it more time than that, and yes, I do advertise my other …Continue reading →
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. We’ve all heard that mantra, but it’s true. Recently, I was caught at just the right moment (inopportune, maybe) by a post a “writer” made, asking for help with formatting, and lamenting how hard it was and wondering why she had to worry about it at all. Her posts throughout also revealed that she could not even handle a few sentences without making errors. And then there were all the commenters helping her like she was a child. So I posted an angry comment. I don’t like to …Continue reading →
Bound to happen….don’t know why I’m surprised. I’ve been publishing excerpts intended to market Supernatural Hypocrisy. Someone just gave me a pissy little review on one of them a while ago, so I went to his site and left one of my own. Amazing what people do. His review was on Thatness & Whatness, and only said “Review by: Brent Adams on March 31, 2013 : star Not impressed. Doesn’t seem well thought out or researched.” So I looked at his wordpress site, and it was one of those generic, newly made ones with all the defaults still up, and …Continue reading →
Directly out of the chute, let me say this is coming from myself as both a writer and a reader. One compelling reason (among others) that I became an author, was due to my disappointment in the offerings of a certain genre. I wanted to write books *I* would want to read. I launched myself into this vocation with little knowledge of what that decision would bring. I had no way of knowing the degree of vulnerability that publishing my writing would entail. Publishing a book is very much like being naked in public. So it’s difficult not to take …Continue reading →
Historically, there has been a notable chasm between the author’s craft and the reading public’s knowledge of what that craft includes. And until recently, we never heard much from authors on a personal level about what they thought and felt, what their creative process was, what their methodology entailed. Nor could readers communicate with their favorite authors in any meaningful way. Now, with the advent of Indie authoring and publishing, writers and readers may actually converse with each other. It might spoil the mystique of being a writer– that romantic idea of an angst-ridden wordsmith closed up in a candlelit …Continue reading →
