Science Fiction Author
I’ve always had a deep-seated fear of failure, long before I even know what to call it. It’s the reason I never volunteered an answer in school even when I was confident I was right. The risk that I was wrong, and everyone would know it, wasn’t worth it to me. It’s the reason it… Continue reading My fear of failure and the creation of Crystal Wolf
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Crystal and Flint’s publication. It’s a crazy feeling knowing that my work has been out in the world for that long, something I had dreamed about and worked at for years. There are still moments when I’m working on The Journey Mission Series where it feels like these… Continue reading Crystal and Flint is 1!
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Renee Dugan author of The Chaos Circus and Darkwind, the first book of the Starchaser Saga. I first met Renee about three years ago on the NaNo forums, where we eventually joined the same cabin for a session of CampNano where we quickly realized that we didn’t want… Continue reading Author Interview: Renee Dugan
I love watching deleted scenes from movies. Those little moments that didn’t make the final cut, but can still give insight in the characters and stories. Just like in movies there are a lot of scenes that get cut when writing book. There’s lots of reasons why a scene gets cut. It might not move… Continue reading Crystal and Flint Deleted Scenes
A few weeks ago I had the chance to sit down and talk to one of my readers. She’s the young teen daughter of a friend of mine from school. She was staying with her grandmother in our old neighborhood and I went over to give her a copy of Family Binds and I was… Continue reading “That’s how it should always be.”
A little over a year ago, we got a new executive director for my department at work. As is always the case when there is new top management, he had grand plans for how to change things. He told us a story about visiting some start up tech company where all the employees were called… Continue reading The power of owning your title
With the release of Family Binds just 16 days away, it’s time to start working on book 3 in The Journey Missions series, Thicker Than Blood. In book 3 Crystal, Desi, Justin, Grady, and Tyler are sent to Earth to speak in a military hearing on the benefits of the officer exchange program to try… Continue reading What to do when your first draft is a huge dumpster fire
Have you ever taken a personality test? They are one of my side interests and I’ve spent countless hours taking them and researching the different personality types. It really helps me to understand how different people take in information and interact with the world. My favorite resource for this is 16 Personalities which follows the… Continue reading Personality Tests and Characterization
I was preparing to speak at a career day a few months ago and was trying to pull together a visual to use to show just how much work goes into getting a book ready for publication. In digging through all the printed drafts I had, I stumbled upon the very first draft for Crystal… Continue reading How a Story Changes: A Look Back at the First Draft of Crystal and Flint
I do this to myself every year. Every December, while I'm still riding high off of my nano win in November, I make a plan for what I want to accomplish the next year, complete with deadlines. Deadlines that I end up not being able to meet once the new year starts. This year is… Continue reading Oh hey there, remember me
