Think about what your reader needs to know. — A good interview is a two-way exchange. It serves both the reader and the interviewee; as the interviewer, you are the conduit between them. For the person being interviewed, it is a publicity opportunity — a chance to get more eyes in places they want them to be. For the…

What happened to twitter, and why it’s (probably) terminal — Have you scrolled Twitter — sorry, I mean X — lately? If you’re new to the platform, perhaps you don’t notice much of a change. For people like me though, who have been around a while, the differences are stark. It’s quiet. I used to liken twitter to a public…

A game review of The Outer Worlds, and Obsidian’s past and future. — It was in conversation with a gravedigger just outside the fictional town of Edgewater that The Outer Worlds first grabbed my attention. I sat horrified as this man revealed his fellow townspeople were being killed by plague and he was burying the bodies. The townspeople had a right, granted by…

The Shield Road came out two years ago! — Two years ago, I made the decision to self-publish my little fantasy book, The Shield Road. We were still at the height of the Covid pandemic, locked inside for months at a time. I can hardly believe it’s been so long! It’s been a wild journey — the best and…

How to tackle one of the most ambiguous plot beats. — When talking about plot structure, most of the important plot beats are easy to grasp. The inciting incident is exactly what it says — an event that sets the wider story in motion. The point of no return is, usually, the point where the hero can no longer go back. …

I’m in charge of anthologies at a small indie press. …

How to invoke the blessings of the word gods — I’m writing this while sitting on top of a finished novella — a shiny stack of 21,300ish words that I’m curling around and protecting as viciously as Smaug the dragon guards his gold. And yet when I last watched a Disney movie, none of these words existed. Hell, even the…

Why I used the strategy I did, and how you can too — If you’ve watched or read any sort of advice on self-publishing a book, you’ve probably come across people saying the same thing: Launching a book should be a slow process. Cover reveals, interviews, giveaways — all that stuff — should be done before the book is released during a lengthy…

Some submission calls writers should keep an eye on — There are many presses out there publishing anthologies — collections of short stories from different authors. But most are only open for a few weeks or months at a time, and it can be difficult keeping track of which ones writers can currently submit to. With that in mind, I’ve…