• My Life

    Back from a couple days away

    Took a mini vacation with the kids but I’m back now and catching up on email. Plus I wrote a story today. Will see if my experiment worked out… I thought of the idea, wrote first draft in the morning, had lunch, then spent the rest of the day rewriting polishing it and tonight I’ll submit it. So, pretty much the fastest story I’ve ever written

  • My Life

    One Way to Mars

    So I’ve been following the progress of the Mars One project. In case you are unfamiliar with this, it is basically a one-way trip to Mars, with a landing intended in 2023. You can find more information at their site: http://mars-one.com/en/. I’m really curious if this will get off the ground. They seem to have a solid list of deliverables but will, of course, require an insane amount of expertise and money to pull this off. But setting such practicalities aside, I’m more curious about the kind of person who’d want to take a one-way voyage to Mars. I think I might have considered this when I was younger. Not…

  • Writing Resources

    Novel 5… last chapter done

    Yep, I’ve finished writing the last chapter of the latest novel. Now, before you get too excited, be reminded that I only started writing this novel recently and I am far from finished. I finished the first chapter last week and the last chapter this week but there’s the whole issue of the rest of the thing. All the middle stuff stills needs to be written. I just wanted to try something different with this latest novel so I thought it might be interesting to write the first chapter, to get a feel for the character’s voices, and then leap to the end, to better prepare me for how things…

  • Game Reviews

    Kickstarter Game

    A former BioWare coworker, Rob Bartel, is distributing a board game via Toy Vault. They are raising funds through Kickstarter, so if you want to see what another former dev is up to in the world of board games, you should take a look at the project. The artwork looks good and Rob’s quite experienced with board games so I’m sure the gameplay will be great. Check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2092804470/apparatus-a-steampunk-game-by-rob-bartel

  • Writing Resources

    Bad Story

    Today I decided to retire one of my stories. And by retire I mean dispose of it (i.e., not waste time sending it out anymore). This is nothing new. I probably have dozens of stories that I’ve retired. What is different is that this story isn’t an old ‘trunk’ story that I’ve been sending out for years. This is a new story, one which I wrote only a couple months ago. After sending it to a couple of markets with no real interest being shown, I’ve taken another look at it. And I’ve decided it is a dud. Why? It is hard to say but after rereading it, its not…

  • Writing Resources

    Quest for Agent

    A few years ago when I started writing novels again, I decided not to pursue a literary agent. I really wanted to focus on writing the novels I’d wanted to write for a long time and working out the kinks in the process (basically, shifting gears from writing short stories to longer work). I knew I’d be learning a lot and figured there were enough markets to submit my novels to without the involvement of an agent. So that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve written four novels and all are out for consideration at various publishing houses. I also wanted to give myself time to research various agencies and track…

  • Writing Resources

    Summer Lover

    Received news right before my recent vacation that my story ‘Summer Lover’ will be appearing in Shroud #12 (Summer 2012). The full table of contents can be read at Shroud’s site. I believe the issue is available now for ordering.

  • My Life

    Not in Edmonton Anymore

    New owners took possession of our home in Edmonton last week so we are officially no longer Edmontonians after a little more than a decade living there! The past few months have been strange, with our slow move from one house to another. Going to take a bit to get used to not living out of boxes and not constantly alternating between two homes. Anyways, that’s done, and now I’m just back from a trip up north where my eldest got to catch his first fish. I’ll be busy catching up on e-mails, finishing a couple story rewrite requests, and starting the next novel. Anything new and exciting happen with…

  • My Life

    You Have Been Warned

    Just a heads up that I will be without Internet for a few days or weeks or months. Going to be too busy fishing. So don’t be concerned if your comments/emails/whatnots are ignored for a bit and rest assured that I’ll catch a fish or two for each of you.