Audience Survey: Entertainment Habits, Genre, and Mood
In August 2020, I conducted an audience survey in collaboration with nine other authors who write fiction stories involving technology themes. We offered readers ten FREE eBooks in exchange for responses to twenty questions about entertainment habits, genre, and tone preferences. We received 1,300 responses in two weeks. In this post, I provide an in-depth analysis of the overall survey results and specific breakdowns by age, gender, and genre. Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been especially fascinated with how people are consuming TV, films, and novels to escape our current reality. As a fiction author, I’ve Read more…
Day 79: Sneak Preview of Rescind Order
You wanted a sneak preview? First, a few words by way of introduction. And I promise, only a few. Definitely not 50K. Well, I didn’t “win” Nanowrimo month. In case you didn’t know, every November, hundreds of thousands of fiction authors commit to the goal of writing 50,000 words in one month. And not just any month. The month of November… which happens to feature fun with friends and family over Thanksgiving. I actually managed to pull this off twice before. Not this time. This year, I wrote 38,000 words on my latest novel, Rescind Order. I’m pretty proud of that word Read more…
Day 66: Wild Creatures are like Good Novel Characters
In Texas, we spend a great deal of time managing and living among wild creatures. SPOILER: they’re sometimes dangerous (ohh, danger), and they’re always bigger than anything I’ve seen elsewhere. Apparently, everything is bigger in Texas. At least that’s been my experience thus far. I’ve recently decided that wild creatures are like good characters in a novel. They make for great stories. WARNING: this post might contain disturbing material about dead creatures (specifically ones that i’ve killed). Palmetto Bugs My fun with the wild creatures of Texas began when I received the proper “Welcome to Rockport, Texas” on my Read more…
Day 16: What Has Been Seen Cannot be Unseen
More than two weeks ago now, I announced my crazy intention of producing a musical stage play on nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence called American Doomsday. You can’t see me right now, but I’m laughing and shaking nervously. And asking myself, “wait, what?” In the meantime, I’ve started the novel that will serve as the basis for the stage play. I’ve been reflecting a great deal on what it means to write a story that is 1) compelling enough to attract a broad audience; 2) sufficiently faithful to the complex and technical topics of nuclear deterrence, the nuclear triad, false alarms, perception, Read more…
Day 1: An Idea is Born
I’ve often heard the phrase, timing is everything. After spending several decades on this planet, I’m inclined to agree. As a fiction writer and content creator, I get new ideas every day and can get excited about any number of them. Sadly, I don’t have the time, energy, or resources to execute them all. But I often wish I could see where all my ideas might lead–to explore whether or not they might work or have the effects I anticipate. But it’s not enough to have a good idea. Even successful execution of a good idea by the right person is not Read more…
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