The wait is finally over, my friends. Book Five of the Vinestead Anthology, Hybrid Mechanics, is now available for purchase at Amazon or by PayPal-ing me $400. Why $400? Well, because in addition to the book, you get a signed 8x10 glossy of yours truly, one of my socks, a handwritten note about your beauty, a USB drive containing MIDI music from 1998, and a copy of The Bhagavad Gita, marked up...
I'm very self-conscious when I run. And Dom's reassurance of nobody's looking at you is hard to believe because when I'm out driving and see someone running, I'm looking at them. The weird thing about anxiety is that when I'm running, I'm assuming people are laughing at my posture, slow pace, or dope-ass dad bod. But when I see people running, I'm usually thinking, go get it, girl (or boy, as the...
If the Sally-Anne experiment teaches us one thing, it’s that we should consider the psychology of our readers when we’re putting a story together.
Been seeing a lot of sunrises lately. I like going for a run in the morning, at first light, which is around 6:15/6:30 this time of year. There aren't many people out, not many cars to deal with. Just a lot of rabbits and one time a mountain lion. I bet you didn't know they had mountain lions in Pflugerville, but they do. The Pflugerville Mountains are famous for them.
For some reason, El Matador is really into trains, so this past weekend, we headed out to the Cedar Park Railroad to ride. It was a short 15 minute jaunt around the park and behind some houses. There were butterflies and people playing cricket. And all the while, Matador simply leaned back in his mom’s lap and took it all in. There’s so much to do around Austin… and we’d...
The characters have been talking a lot lately, as if they’re just sitting still, spinning their wheels. This happens sometimes when you’re following four POVs and only one is really churning. It’s easy to get discouraged, but the only answer is to press on. Write the lengthy conversations; later, we’ll come back and frame them in something more exciting than two ladies...
Everyone wins when Matador goes on adventures. I just never knew I would enjoy it so much.
My only problem with the Terminator universe is that it changes too much. Daniel Radcliffe will always be Harry Potter. Harrison Ford will always be Han Solo. But what about the most iconic hero in all of human history, John Connor?
Common Twitter author wisdom holds that your first draft, no matter your skill level, will always be shitty. There was one guy once who posted that it doesn’t have to be shitty, but he was wrong. First drafts are generally terrible, but the advice bandied about in 140-character chunks is just as terrible. Just write something. Just write shit. Ugh.
Almost three weeks have passed since the launch of Hybrid Mechanics, and since you've already purchased, read, and reviewed that book on Amazon, I thought I'd clue you in on what's coming next. You'll be happy to know that while Hybrid Mechanics was with my editor, I was already working on a new book, tentatively titled Brigham Plaza.
