Category: Books

2023 retrospective

I discovered a new writer this past year (so far in the distance now 6 days into 2024) who talked about life in seasons rather than years. That resonated deeply with me, perhaps because I tend to cultivate change in cycles so much shorter than years. Seasons drifts to the surface like dust motes in […]

January 9, 2024 | Posted in Books, Helion Chronicles, Life, travel
2022 retrospective

8 some odd years in and I finally come up with something better than “things of” for my annual post. When I started in 2014, I probably avoided something like “retrospective” because it was obvious. But now I want something new. It’s the year for new things–a new Tattered Heart, a new website layout, a […]

January 9, 2023 | Posted in Arizona, Books, Helion Chronicles, Life, Tattered Heart, travel
A New Tattered Heart

So, I have done the unexpected, the unconventional, perhaps the unwise but it’s done regardless. I have (sort of) rewritten Tattered Heart. The Long Version (There’s a Short Version you can skip down to, if you don’t want to read all this) Years ago, I mean YEARS ago, I bought a compilation of The Lyra […]

December 19, 2022 | Posted in Tattered Heart
things of 2021

The fact that it’s February and I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t done my annual post yet probably says something. It says not much happened last year. Well, it did and it didn’t. It was a quiet year of building blocks for other things. The mortar and clay of life is often uninteresting, though it’s […]

February 21, 2022 | Posted in Arizona, Life, Tattered Heart, travel
things of 2019

2019 seems, in many ways, to have been a quiet year. The sort of time that one is content to live in and others find rather boring to discuss. I worked but didn’t travel enough for my tastes. I worked out which was actually a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time with my […]

January 1, 2020 | Posted in Arizona, author events, Books, Helion Chronicles, Life
Plotting Part 7,298

I’m plotting again. A new, old story. I actually did pretty good this morning, I mapped out 4 plots for the novel – one for each main character. On the surface, I’m pretty proud of myself because I’m actually figuring out how to do this plotting thing and fit pieces together and maybe even have […]

May 4, 2019 | Posted in Arizona, Plot
110 Planets

I need to lay some groundwork for The Helion Chronicles because my “science” is probably going to shock some people. There is a great deal of the science in these stories that is absolutely made up. They are science fiction set thousands of years in the future so I didn’t feel the need to make […]

June 4, 2018 | Posted in Helion Chronicles
Books as TV Shows

I had an idea, early in 2017, to write a book like a tv show. The first thing everyone thinks of when I mention this idea is that it’s written in screenplay format. I do not mean it’s written in screenplay format. Let’s set aside books for a moment and think of movies and tv […]

April 23, 2018 | Posted in Helion Chronicles
things of 2017

I have been abysmal at blogging this past year. Truly. I am making up for it gradually and it begins with a look back. Year of Jubilee. It hasn’t been celebrated since ancient times (around 720 BC) so there is no way of really knowing. Gen. George Allenby led Allied forces into Jerusalem in 1917. […]

January 3, 2018 | Posted in author events, Helion Chronicles, Life, travel
New Zealand

The tale of an epic quest through New Zealand. It began at 7 am on a Monday at, of all things, a rental car office. Though it was May, the air held a chill bearing the onset of fall and I had a video to watch. On driving on the left side of the road. […]

May 31, 2017 | Posted in Helion Chronicles, Life, travel