I’m very pleased to announce that Bundoran Press, a small Canadian press that’s put out some terrific books in its short life and has a new owner and managing editor, Aurora Award-winning author Hayden Trenholm, has bought my science fiction novel Right to Know (that’s the working title–it could still change), with the goal of …
Category: Books
Why books are better than the movies made from them
My 11-year-old daughter Alice and I, during a before-school stop in a coffee shop this morning, were discussing books that have been made into movies: specifically The Hunger Games, which won several People’s Choice Awards last night. “Why are the books always so much better than the movies?” asked Alice. A question for the ages. …
J.R.R. Tolkien in his own words
Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday: he was born January 3, 1892. In honor of that occasion, here’s the section entitled “In His Own Words” from the biography of Tolkien I wrote for Enslow Publishers, J.R.R. Tolkien: Master of Imaginary Worlds. These quotes are drawn from on an interview with Tolkien conducted by Daphne Castell and …
The tangled tale of how my YA fantasy Spirit Singer was born, died, and is being resurrected
Let’s step into the wayback machine, and set it for the turn of the century… In that long-ago time, ebooks were in their infancy. There were dedicated ebook-reading devices, but practically nobody had them. (Although I did: a Hiebook. Read a lot of David Weber on it through Baen’s free ebook library.) There were ebook …
Things my editor told me
I think I’ve mentioned—though no more than a gazillion times or so, so you might have missed it—that my next book to be published by DAW will be Masks, first book in a trilogy (and hopefully series) that will continue with Shadows and Faces. Earlier today I spent a couple of hours on the phone …
First book from writers I advised as writer-in-residence is released!
On Saturday I attended a book launch at the Regent Park branch of the Regina Public Library, and no, it wasn’t for one of mine: it was for Only One Round: One Couple’s Journey to Living the Good Life, by Steve and Reneé Wallace. I was thrilled to be asked, because Steve and Reneé were …
The birth of The Hobbit
I posted this back in July, but it seems apropos to post it again today, with the release of the first movie in the new trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. It’s the first chapter of the biography of Tolkien I wrote for Enslow Publishers, entitled J.R.R. Tolkien, Master of Imaginary Worlds..and it’s …
How I became a DAW author
Here is a tale I’ve told oft before, though never (I think) in print or pixel: the tale of how I became a DAW author. It’s an oft-told tale because I like to share it with writers who are still in that seeking-publication stage, for though the specifics of it are of little use (I …
Chicon 7: the 70th World Science Fiction Convention
(Note: if you’re thinking this doesn’t exactly read like a typical convention report from a SF writer, that would be because this is actually my weekly science column. A slightly different version will be my column for the next issue of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild newsletter Freelance. Never let a convention go to waste! (The …
Saturday (er, Sunday) Special: J.R.R. Tolkien, Master of Imaginary Worlds
I think I’ve now posted the introductions to all of the biographies I wrote for Enslow Publishers except this one: J.R.R. Tolkien, Master of Imaginary Worlds. Like my book on Orson Scott Card, it was part of their Authors Teens Love series. Why, yes, I did really really enjoy writing this one. How did you …