professional science fiction and dark fantasy writer
Gemma Files is the weird west author of A Book of Tongues, one of the novels included in the weird west StoryBundle which a reader can purchase at a very low price. I had the opportunity to interview Gemma recently and she was kind enough to allow me to post it on my blog. I …
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THERMOPYLAE. MASADA. AGINCOURT. AND NOW, HAXAN, NEW MEXICO TERRITORY, CIRCA 1874 . . . Through a sea of time and dust, in places that might never be, or can’t become until something is set right, there are people destined to travel. Forever. Marshal John T. Marwood is one of these men. Taken from a place …
Continue reading "Thermopylae. Masada. Agincourt. And now, HAXAN."
All right, this is pretty cool. CZP/HarperCollins already has my upcoming dark fantasy novel Haxan up for preorder on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. Thanks! Haxan Preorder Page And another cool thing that happened. My novel was listed (with many other upcoming novels to be sure) on the Westeros.org site. Now that right there …
Continue reading "Wow, my novel HAXAN is up for preorder by CZP/HarperCollins (plus a shout out)"
Yay! My new weird western novel Haxan will be published by CZP in May, 2014. Here's a peek of the cover designed by Erik Mohr. I am currently getting events lined up to attend and talk about the novel. I have been invited to ArmadilloCon in Austin for July 25-27. When I get a …
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Still have some personal things on my plate which take precedence over everything else, but I wanted to catch you up on my writing so far. I finished the second draft of Quaternity and sent it to the publisher for review. I thought they had a lot of really good advice for me and I …
I am not a big fan of romance. I don't think much of most fantasy, either, because a lot of it draws too much on what has been done before and comes off as lazy. It feeds upon itself too much, especially when it comes to plot and motivation and the world the characters are …
I am finishing the second big edit of Quaternity. This morning I finished fixing some pieces in the story that had been bothering me. I think I might be reaching a point where I am starting to do more harm than good. Too much editing can have a negative impact on a manuscript. I am …
Continue reading "There might be blood. But then we’d have to swab it up and who wants to do that?"
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy is a very good novel that, by all rights, should have been great. It tells the story of a drug deal gone bad and how fate impacts different lives, and ends up shattering them. Written in a minimalist style with no quotation marks, commas or apostrophes, this …
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Today I finished the first edit for the Haxan prequel novel. The title of the novel is Quaternity. There is a sub-title The Sunset of Destruction, the Ashes of the West. I think it went pretty well. As I have mentioned this is not like anything I have ever written before. When I first thought …
I've been writing a long time. I've always been a writer, I guess, even as a small boy that's all I ever wanted to do. But I have been doing this full-time since 1998. One of the things I have learned is how to read other writers. When I read their stories or novels I …
Here are more pictures from what I have been calling my Border Trip. It's the trip I took from Laredo to Nogales in preparation to writing the novel I have just completed. The buttes in the distance are fantastic. Here is my campsite at Fort Davis. There was a lot of wildlife here, including javelinas …
Next week I will try to post some pictures from the Border Trip I took to research the novel. I don't know what they will add to the context of the process I have already written about, but you might like them. Who knows? I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words and …
I am trying to completely process what I was able to accomplish in 19 days. One of the things that strikes me about it is how fast this novel was written. Yet when you take into account all the notes, research, trips, preparation, it wasn't so fast. Then again it was kind of fast, ha. …
Just a quick update about the novel writing so far. I have been working diligently every day. I plan on having this novel completed (first draft) by next week. If I do, I will have a lot to say about the process and what I went through to get it done. Haven't forgotten you guys …
I am not using italics for the Spanish translations in the Haxan prequel novel. I want to show stylistically the Spanish and English is all one part of the same culture. Now whether or not I am ultimately successful in this is open to debate. But that's my philosophy why I am not underlining Spanish …
Continue reading "Late Afternoon Thoughts on a Novel in Progress"
So far the change to 1st person POV appears to be working. It might be a little too soon to render final judgment. I might not be able to do that if and until the manuscript is completely written. But so far so good, I think. The three chapters I have done so far appear …
Continue reading "So far the new start on the novel appears okay….fingers still crossed"
Today I am happy to welcome Jenn Nixon as a guest blogger. She will talk about her new novel Lucky's Charm. Enjoy! --KMH Â Jenn Nixon says: I started writing at a very young age but didn't realize I actually wanted to make a living as a writer until I finished my first Star Wars …
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I have decided to write the new Haxan novel I am working on in first person POV. I think this is the right move for the story and for me. But mostly for the story because I have always been of the opinion the story comes first. My wants are secondary to that and always …
As a writer, the only time you should break the rules is when you know the rules beforehand. Fortunately, in writing, there are no rules. Which is why you must be extra careful before you go around breaking them and drawing attention to yourself. I know. Sounds screwy and somewhat zen-like. But there's a lot …
Continue reading "Rules are made to be broken, except when they’re not."
It's morning and I am sitting in the coffee shop with my writing buddy. I've been having some difficulty with the heel of my right foot. I somehow banged the heel or popped it or something and now it's sore and I am having a very hard time walking around on it. Wearing boots helps …
Continue reading "Making Some Decisions as a Writer are not as Easy as it Seems"
Hoover's Corner 