Review of ‘One Man’s Trash’ – by Ryan Southwick

One Man’s Trash starts oddly slow. There is a lot of descriptive action going on at the beginning but it’s more like watching the action happen rather than experiencing it with the characters.

This changes once the main characters get onto the station – The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. Ryan Southwick does a marvelous job of delicately fleshing out the main characters with thoughtful and engrossing looks at their motivations, the situation they’re in, and whom they meet and interact with on the station. (Spoiler note: ‘Eckle’ is an interesting character.) Their adventure changes direction midway … [READ MORE]

The cutting room floor

Sometimes despite a lot of writing, some parts of a story have to be cut out.  Either they mess with the flow, or are too jarring, or too repetitive, or just somehow off compared to the rest of the story.  With ‘Brandished Destiny’ I had to through out my first beginning as it was rushed, extremely dark, and not what felt right for the novel.  I’m including it here.  A side note – I keep everything as I’ve found that what doesn’t work in one story can be a godsend to another one.  So I keep the pieces and every … [READ MORE]

What a day can bring you

Writing is about imagination, clarity, precision,  and communication.  Depending on the subject and the nature of the writing,  one or more of those will be the major focus and the others will back it up.  Writing is also about well, writing – doing the actual job of putting words on paper and doing the work of writing rather than the preparation.  It’s all in your hands whatever the subject of the dissertation is – fantasy, Ph D paper, technical paper, news, poetry, music.  It comes down to writing in a manner that creates the proper details for the subject.

Since … [READ MORE]

Brandished Destiny – Chapter 2 – Boomerang History

Larry waved us over to their pine picnic table. He had thoughtfully set out corn on the cob, American style french fries, water, and a salad bowl for a snack. He and Fawn had learned how much work went into marriage, and that no one family ever had it like the fairy tales. They had more good days than bad now, and Zhira was one reason why. I’d just sat down to grab an ear of corn, when my cellphone buzzed. An instant later, a shrill ringing came from an open window in their house.

Fawn grumbled and stalked toward … [READ MORE]

Brandished Destiny – Chapter 1 – Open Door

The blast of power blotted out the cloudless blue sky with a rippling distortion that turned everything grey. It smashed into me like a runaway truck. I held my ground and diverted the power upwards by imagining a curved surface in front of me. The surface did its job and the power flashed upwards to break apart in blots of grey surrounded by flecks of blue. Imagination is a great weapon when you don’t need a circle to cast, but you pay for it with strained mucsles, headaches, bodyaches, and lethargy. I had them in spades.

We’d finally gotten a … [READ MORE]

New potential series / short stories

Hi there, I’m only  …ummm… 8 days late with my next post.  What’s going on is I have been giving a lot of thought to the ‘Glass Bottles’ series as the 4th book is working towards a finish, and then the likely 5th and final book for it will be next.  Which means I need another series to write.  I’ve a number of choices and potential formats.  Urban Fantasy is fun and entertaining to write, plus there’s on occasion of ‘Magick’ being a useful bit of Deus ex Machina.  I like Science Fiction also, and have a few stories … [READ MORE]

New Location

Hi!  Since I’m not longer with Facebook (and never likely to go back until they quit blocking me if I take my computer out of the house to the donut shop for coffee) I will do updates and conversations here.  This is currently a very limited venue, but one I hope to enlarge over the coming weeks.  Right now it’s been a looooong time silent because I hadn’t any new portions of stories to share.  Today it’s not about sharing a story but starting a conversation about writing.  I enjoy writing but have a great difficulty maintaining focus and momentum … [READ MORE]

On Writing – what do I do when a story stalls?

There are days when I can crank out a lot of words, and days when each one is like trying to pull an infected tooth.  My biggest frustration though, is when the story quits talking to me.  Usually it happens right before the start of the climax though sometimes it’s right in the first few chapters.  It just shuts up and won’t say a thing.

At this point I have two choices – 1) fight for every word and mumble incoherently while I try to feel my way ahead, or 2) shelve the project until the little voice starts whispering … [READ MORE]

Brandished Destinies Chapter 3 part 1

After Judge Caddus left, and thoughtfully left the bottle under my coffee cup, I called Sinera in to ask her take on the conversation.

“He is truly disturbed by finding the item. It is not his only concern however. I do not have a notion of what his other concern might be. He is very careful with speech and mannerisms.”

“So asking him directly is not going to be an option.”

Sinera shrugged, then sat down in the guest chair. “I do not believe so. If he would have given an indication of concern, I am certain that … [READ MORE]

Brandished Destinies Chapter 2 part 2

He stared at me for a long moment. His eyes locked on mine and I don’t think he ever blinked. He sat and stared, as if trying to find a way to broach a subject. Finally he sighed, then reached up a sleeve on his robe. He took a few moments to locate something by touch, then removed his closed hand and placed on my desk in front of me. He opened his hand and withdrew it, leaving behind a small metallic-like blue glass bottle. The same kind of bottle that cost my friend Zhirk his life and Hervald Thensome … [READ MORE]