And what a challenge! I’ve decided to try my hand at writing my first ever historic novel, and it is much different experience than anything else I’ve worked on. Most of what I write requires some research, but nothing like the amount necessary to write a historical figure in a setting I can barely imagine. Since it was such a long time ago, no one else can imagine it either, and that means I can add quite a bit of my own imagination to shape the protagonist. But that is also

Yesterday I had a chance to speak with high school students and I talked about how I spin a yarn by using examples from my graphic novelettes and short stories. I described how I think up with characters – like my protagonist in my upcoming novel “ Blood Interrogator ”—and I told them how I often write when I have no ideas at all. I wrote “ The Radio ” in about a half hour because I was sitting close next to a 1950s radio as I waited for a symposium to start. Since I had a ha

It worked! After forcing myself to write utter rubbish, slowly some decent ideas began to form. I had to do quite a bit of deleting the first morning, but by the afternoon I was rolling. Two days ago I wrote nearly two chapters and yesterday I wrote a chapter and a smidge. Yes, instead of two chapters I wrote three to finish Null City  because I felt it needed a proper closer. All that is left is the epilogue, but I don’t plan on writing it until after I have completed my rev