How to Critique a Book

Critiquing a book isn’t so much about telling someone what they’re doing wrong, but helping them see their book better. This means not only telling the author when I think something’s not working, but also when I think they’re doing something right, and more importantly, why. This helps the author to really see their book […]

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Seven Things I Love About Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

I love post-apocalyptic fiction. Especially when the apocalypse is recent. Let me count the ways: 1. Post-Apocalyptic Bloomer. When I was a kid, I learned cartography. And I was damned good at it. I could give directions on the fly using paper maps for just about anyone, fast enough for the driver to make the turns, […]

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What Dance Taught Me About Writer’s Block

Anyone who knows me knows I love to dance. And dancing, for me, has always meant learning new and fun choreography. Until recently. This year, I started taking classes at a studio that emphasizes learning to freestyle. In these classes, we all start out dancing together, but in the end, we each pick out one […]

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Be the Moderator’s Favorite: 10 Tips for Panelists

The Gen Con Writer’s Symposium is a hidden gem of the yearly Indianapolis gaming convention, with over 200 hours of programming and an amazing list of authors and editors and other publishing types. This year, I had the honor of moderating a few of the panels—and in doing so I had some thoughts. Here are […]

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Making Monsters Scary

For my current project, I’m thinking a lot about monsters. Scary monsters, rather than Monsters University types. And what I found, to my surprise, is that very few of the monsters I came across in my research into were actually scary to me. Like, they might be scary-adjacent—as in, yeah, I’d run away if I […]

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