Tag: writing

  • Researching a Novel: Into the Abyss

    It glows by night, filling the air with a blood-red cloud. By day, its rising steam billows dull gray from an active crater. Either way, it’s a wonder to behold, a doorway to a hot spot of subterranean fires that recalls the opening lines from Canto Three of Dante’s Inferno: Only those elements time cannot wear Were made…

  • Researching a Novel: My Lost World

    Rain forests, deserts, volcanic mountains, green-sand beaches. They’re all part of the alien landscape of a novel project that links and expands my novelettes “Daughters of Prime” and “The Others” (both of which originally appeared in F&SF). Since the alien setting will feature ever-more prominently in the book-length version, I figured it would be a good idea to experience such…

  • All-Star Night (Part 2):
    Finding Hysteria with Stephanie Wytovich

    Welcome back! Just in time to start the New Year off with a little hysteria. Yesterday’s post featured Owen Kilbane and his story about discovering the powers of music in attracting the opposite sex. If you missed it, you will definitely want to go back and check it out. Here’s a link. Owen’s performance was…


  • Instigation Showcase
    Day 3 of the Veins Blog Tour

    Michael A. Arnzen’s website Gorelets.com is always brimming with terrific writing advice. That’s not surprise, given that Mike is both a founder of Seton Hill University’s graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction and the author of the book Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side. Instigation is a treasury of over 500 tips, scenarios and sparks…

  • Randall Silvis:
    One of the Writers on Writing @ Riley’s

    The first in a series of profiles on some of the writers being featured at this month’s Writers on Writing @ Riley’s. Hailed as “a masterful storyteller” by the New York Times Book Review, Randall Silvis is the author of fourteen critically acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction in various genres. A former contributing writer…

  • “Dramatize it! Dramatize it!”

    In my previous post I promised to spend time responding to questions submitted during my most recent presentation on “The Art of Revision” at Seton Hill University. If you want to know more about the backstory, please take a look at that previous post, otherwise . . . read on! The next question in my stack…