Yes, this week’s blog is a bit late and there is no excuse for tardiness. I’ve tried teaching that to my 11-year-old, but the lesson sticks about as well as olive oil on teflon. Anyway, this week I want to talk about two books: mine and one by Steven Pressfield. If you read last week’s blog, you know I dove into a deep rewrite on my work in progress (what we in the business call a WiP [by the business I mean writers with delusions of grandeur]). It has proved a most rewarding endeavor. The… Read Article →
Posts by: Bowen
Of Rabbit Holes and Revisions My current work in progress was born of two parents. One, to create a humorous, offbeat fantasy a la Terry Pratchett and two, to follow a writing guide, i.e. the Hero’s Journey (and Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel). The tale started well enough. But by the fourth and fifth chapter I was hip-deep in banal epic fantasy normality. I followed the tale where it led me, even though I had laid out the outline and four act structure beforehand. It felt like I was on track. The characters were… Read Article →
I’m taking a break from the keyboard this week to enjoy time with family and friends. My thoughts will be free to wander away from what happens next in my work in progress. If life provides this same opportunity for you this week, take it. Grab it it with both hands and ride it out for the full eight seconds. Substantive blog posts (if I can call them that) will return in 2023. Happy New Year!
And Why That’s Important No, this is not a “War on Christmas” diatribe. This is a reminder that Christmas is a National Holiday in the United States and many other nations. President Grant made it so the same year (1870) Thanksgiving and Washington’s Birthday became federal holidays. It was seen as a means of healing a nation. Many U.S. states set Christmas as a holiday and so the Grant administration–only five years after accepting the South’s surrender at Appomattox–made an effort at unification by taking national recognition of dates important to the nation as a… Read Article →
How to Avoid the Landmines 98.2% of today’s self-published authors wet their feet with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). I made that stat up, but it’s gotta be close. And rightly so, Amazon is THE main marketplace and an author can have a finished book out for sale with less than an hour’s work. So, it makes sense to start there. I did. Then I went wide. Publishing with KDP and D2D proved to have several pitfalls. I published A Night to Remember with KDP just to see what the hubbub was all about. After the… Read Article →
Today’s my birthday and to celebrate, I’m giving gifts to you. Today until December 15th you can download my Dawn Trouble and The Wedding Guest ebooks for FREE! That’s right, both ebooks can be yours for the same price as, well, a breath or snapping your fingers or digestive bloating. Not that you want any part of that last one, but still, we’re talking FREE. If two free short stories isn’t gift enough, then how about a hundred-page novella for only 99-cents? For the same five day window, December 11-15, the ebook of A Night… Read Article →
Here’s a bit of advanced notice just for you, my friends, readers, and subscribers. On December 11th–the birthday of a certain budding author–I’ll be sending a gift your way. So, be on the lookout for an announcement in your email this Sunday. It’s a present for you on my birthday. Enjoy.