Occasionally, you will hear a publisher describe an author as an “editor’s dream.” By this, they usually mean that the editor would have to do a minimal amount of work to make the project better. Which also means the publisher is more likely to consider the piece. This doesn’t mean that publishers won’t consider projects [...]

Writer and speaker Rob Carmack suggests that Christian men need to start reading more books written by women. …in the Christian publishing market, it is a rare thing for men to seek out and read books authored by women. Last year, I was reading an excellent book by Shauna Niequist entitled Cold Tangerines. A friend [...]

The Kindle edition of my horror / weird fiction anthology Subterranea is free the remainder of this week at Amazon. This is a collection of nine short stories, most of which had been previously published elsewhere. It’s a decent sample of my writing and includes horror, fantastical, sci-fi, and a hybrid piece or two. If [...]

Mark Twain used to say that he put a cat and a dog together in a cage as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so he put in a bird, pig and a goat. After a few adjustments, they too got along fine. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian [...]

Over the course of blogging, I’ve compiled a decent number of interviews with writer friends, editors, agents, and people of interest. Some of my personal faves are my interview with Robert Darden, senior editor for the Wittenburg Door and Baylor U prof, Debra Dixon’s two-part interview regarding the state of publishing is quite good, as [...]

I’ve made my peace with the fact that I’m a slow reader. This year, I changed up my reading list a little and committed to reading more non-fiction, especially memoirs and graphic novels. My top NON-FICTION reads of this year were 1.) The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey Into the [...]

Christians love to posture themselves as “Going against the flow” and being “Not of this world.” We are a people set apart, different than the surrounding culture, with a unique set of values and sensitivities. Except when it comes to reviewing Christian books. Apparently cheer-leading for our favorite author, stuffing the ballot box, exaggerating, and [...]

Blogging is hard enough without being a novelist. Unless you’re J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, getting readers to frequent your blog can be quite challenging, especially if you’re doing it to simply pimp your products. Which is why Michael Hyatt developed 13 Blog Post Ideas for Novelists. If you’re a novelist struggling to excavate ideas [...]

Perhaps it’s just me and the circles I run in, but social media has recently become a distraction. A distraction to writing, that is. It looks like this: I’m writing — whether a blog post, article, or book, something career related — and my mind starts to drift. So I open a tab and start [...]