How Do You Stop An Imperial President?
One of the duties of a fiction writer is to predict the future; and sometimes re imagine the past. The issue of a president bloated with power and breaking the law is a problem that has bedeviled our country throughout its existence. There are times when Presidents have pushed the limits of the law and […]
Who Would You Want To Survive With?
Yourself and Your Team: What special skills and background do you have? The people on your team? These include medical, construction, problem solving, military, the list is basically about coping with a mild emergency that isn’t life-threatening. The key is to know what you can and can’t do, and what those around you can and […]
Goodfellas; and Barge?
Since every idea has been done, a job of the writer is to absorb as much idea and story from the world around them. Not to plagiarize: it’s research. It’s our job. In the evening, my wife and I, and our dogs, pile into bed and watch TV. My wife always has the remote and […]
Area 51: Interstellar
Area 51: Interstellar. The pre-order is live on the 12th book in the epic Area 51 series. I wrote this book differently, so that readers who have not previously experience any of the books can actually start with this one and by the end of it, they are looped back into where the series currently […]
Stuff Doesn’t Just Happen (book free today)
It really doesn’t. Any man-made disaster usually has seven cascade events, with the seventh being the disaster. At least one of the six previous ones is always human error, if not more. Thus there is a Gift to Failure, if we study it, in order to prevent future, similar failures. Today 2/16 and tomorrow, 2/17, […]
Write What You Know?
We hear that all the time. Since I was abducted by aliens, I wrote the Area 51 series to describe the mothership and what they were like and it did rather well. Or write what you want to know? The bottom line is write. For my fifth book, Cut Out, the idea was a combination […]
What Is An Area Study And Why Should You Do One?
The first thing we did when we were assigned a mission in Special Forces was an Area Study. We examined WHERE the mission would occur in detail. We all need to do an area study of where we live, work, go to school and travel. It is the very first step of preparation, because it […]
Writer’s Need Mule-Like Stupidity
Substitute the word ‘books’ and you’ve got it. Early in my career, which has now spanned three decades, while I was living in a one-room unheated apartment above a garage, I used to say I could make a lot more money doing other things, such as gun-slinging as a contractor. Besides the fact I wouldn’t […]
The Wife– a must see movie
We recently watched The Wife (because my wife always has the controls and always finds the best stuff to watch, and even if she didn’t, I would say she did, because I’ve gotten wiser in my old age). First, this is a must see, but especially for writers. Trying to avoid spoilers, but let’s say […]
On Writing: Dumb and Dumber
I mentioned in a previous post about ideas that title is important and how my first book published, Eyes of the Hammer, failed in that regard? As did my second book: Dragon Sim-13. By the time my third book rolled around I was much smarter. Not. I got cute. I invented a word: SYNBAT. You […]
Why We Must Stop Procrastinating and Start Preparing?
We all need we need to “be prepared”. But what does that mean? Where do we start? There’s so much information out there and the image of hunkering down in a bunker, fending off zombies is overwhelming. But the real problems are real and WILL happen to all of us. We know we need to […]