• My Life,  Writing Resources

    Edge of the World

    I received a copy of this book a few years back at the Writers of the Future workshop. Kevin gave each writer there a signed copy. Though I was curious to check this original fantasy series out, I’ve had a bunch of ‘research writing’ to finish over the past few years (seriously, I’m that book-logged). Anyways, this why it has taken me so long to get to it, since I don’t generally give myself much time just for ‘fun reading’. I enjoyed ‘The Edge of the World’. It is a nice take on the ‘low magic’ setting that seems relatively popular in fantasy writing nowadays. It has a strong emphasis…

  • Writing Resources

    Illustrators of the Future 26

    The winning art for Volume 26 of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future contest, is now available for viewing at the Writers of the Future website. One of the coolest aspects of winning the Writers of the Future contest was that each winning story received an illustration by one of the illustrators who had won the Illustrators of the Future contest. This particular piece, by Rebecca Gleason, accompanied my story ‘Digital Rights’. I was thrilled during the art unveiling when I saw this and I think it fits the story quite well. You can still purchase a copy of Writers of the Future 26.

  • Writing Resources

    New review for Digital Rights

    ‘Digital Rights’ my Writers of the Future winning story just received a new review today. “Digital Rights kept me interested. I was hooked right away, and I didn’t stop reading until I finished, despite its being fairly long for a short story at 12K words. There are a number of really good things about the story.” You can read the full review here. And the story is available in Writers of the Future Volume 26, along with a horde of fantastic stories or on its lonesome from Amazon or Smashwords.

  • Writing Resources

    Read This: Digital Rights by Brent Knowles (Writers of the Future Winning Story)

    The Assistant responsible for the primary thruster arrangement killed itself just ten days after Izzy arrived on the solar station. The panicked chatter of the other Assistants prevented them from continuing with their own duties. Horror, speculation, and worse of all, wonder, flowed across the station’s network. Izzy had to stop it. And it was her fault; it never should have happened. She had been distracted. Later she would blame the ghost, but for now, she simply reacted. Simply acted. Her body twisted and jerked, her fingers puncturing the holographic displays that surrounded her, initiating commands as she fought for the station’s survival. Earth, beautiful, blue, perfect, floated in front…

  • My Life

    Things You Might Not Know

    For those of you who are interested in such things I thought it might be worthwhile to list a variety of facts about me. Some true, some not so much. TRUE FACTS I write short stories and novels I won first place in the third quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest (2009) for my short story ‘Digital Rights‘ I have story reprints available on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and the Nook I am a game design consultant with Empire Avenue, the Social Stock Market The most recent game I played was Emissary of War My first writing sale was an article on role-playing with different languages in Dragon Magazine.…

  • My Life

    Signing Stuff

    One of the fun experiences we had at the Writers of the Future event last year was to sign books. Several authors gave us tips on how to write good inscriptions. Nina Kiriki Hoffman was especially helpful, spending time with me at the bbq and giving me advice on writing something memorable. I won’t reveal all the advice I was given (go and enter the Contest for yourself!) but the key was to create a phrase that resonated with what the story was about. Some of the other winners came up with cool inscriptions but I wasn’t happy with mine (don’t even remember what I wrote now, to be honest).…

  • Writing Resources

    Stories and Amazon Sales

    So something strange happened this week… one of my stories was priced ‘free’ on Amazon (I mentioned it briefly last post). So far my publishing short story reprints to Amazon… Smashwords… AnthologyBuilder has been mostly an experiment in ePublishing, testing the waters so to speak. Sales have been far from brisk :) But with ‘The Prophet‘ being free several thousand readers downloaded it in the span of a few days. And in those same two days I’ve had more sales of other stories than in the couple years I’ve been on Amazon. No, please, don’t be too happy for me. The sales are still rather puny and I wouldn’t be…

  • Writing Resources

    Rich Horton – Writers of the Future XXVI Mention

    Reviewer Rich Horton has posted an entry on his blog about Writers of the Future XXVI. His blog, ‘The Elephant Forgets‘ has summaries of most sci-fi/fantasy magazines and anthologies. These are short summaries so he does not go into full detail on any individual stories but as a writer it is always nice to know when our work is being noticed. And I admit I am always pleased if one of my stories catches his notice as it seems to have this time.

  • Writing Resources

    ‘Digital Rights’ – AnthologyBuilder

    My Writers of the Future winning story ‘Digital Rights’ is now available at AnthologyBuilder. So there are now four places to read this story! I really am making this as convenient for you as possible. – In Writers of the Future XXVI – On the Kindle – On a variety of eBook devices through Smashwords (also check here for how to read it for free until the end of the week) – As part of a custom print anthology via AnthologyBuilder