I keep swearing I’ll never mention politics (especially Scottish politics) again and then fall off the wagon. So visualize me climbing back on the wagon and getting back to the topic of writing. I was going on a bit about Heinlein’s Rules and his first two were pretty straightforward. You Read more…
It has come to my attention that several bloggers in Scotland have recently come under attack for openly criticizing politicians and journalists. They have even had their jobs threatened for their remarks. This is absolutely blatant censorship. Mind you, none of their remarks have been proven untrue, although I suppose Read more…
I posted a few days ago (ok… ok… it was a couple of weeks) about how to succeed in writing and mentioned that you actually have to write. Afterwards, I realized that, of course, I was merely echoing the great Robert Heinlein in his Heinlein’s Rules from his classic essay Read more…
Some say that there are no rules for writing. Someone recently told me that. It happened that Mark Twain disagreed and he gave an interesting list. On my “if you’re going to steal, steal from someone great” theory, I’m stealing the good Mr. Clement’s rules, which are: Twain’s Rules of Read more…
I discovered that I’m leaving the subject of historical novels. I love them. I write them. I have a strong opinion opinion about them and that is this: The should be about history and not fantasy. If you want to write a fantasy, I think that’s what you should do. Read more…
How much does it matter to you as a reader? How much as a writer? I have to admit it matters immensely to me, but I’m never quite sure where to bend when writing my own historical works. Examples of what annoyed me: a spinning wheel in 14th century England. Read more…
No more politics. But I’m not sure that writing about writing isn’t more depressing. I am currently of the opinion that being a writer pretty much sucks. It isn’t so much the rejections from publishers and agents although I certainly won’t pretend I don’t get my share of those. Don’t Read more…
For some reason the serious problems with the Lockerbie case is little known in this country. I’ve never been sure why. In Scotland, with a large part of one of their towns destroyed and many of their own citizens dead, there has been a lot of concern about bringing out Read more…
Ugh! I’m very behind on my blogging. Put it down to writing a new novel, having the flu and being lazy. There has been a lot of talk among the writers I hang out with on the subject of finding an agent, so I want to talk about that some. Read more…
This will be a short one tonight. I wanted to announce that I have two winners for the copies of Warrior’s Duty. They will go to John and Victoria and I’ll email them both tomorrow to get their physical addresses. Thanks so much to everyone who took part! I’ve talked Read more…