Category Archives: Novels

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Holidays As Part of World Building

Posted on December 9, 2020 by dbjackson

I have written about the holidays a good deal in the past few weeks, but I have yet to address holidays as a topic in a Writing-Tip Wednesday post. Now, you’re first response to this might be, “Well, why would … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Fun, History, Islevale Cycle, Novels, Setting, Short Fiction, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Holidays As Part of World Building

Writing-Tip Wednesday: The Quickening

Posted on November 18, 2020 by dbjackson

Okay, writers, raise your hand if any of your characters have ever done things you didn’t expect. Yeah, I figure that’s most of us. Now raise your hand if your characters have ever done things you really didn’t want them … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, kids, Novels, parenting, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: The Quickening

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Goals Revisited Again, End of Year, and NaNo

Posted on November 11, 2020 by dbjackson

That is what the last month or so of most years is about. I want to set myself up to be organized, motivated, productive, and successful in the year to come. First let me wish a peaceful, healthful Veterans Day … Continue reading →

Posted in A Plunder of Souls, Dead Man's Reach, Novels, Short Fiction, Thieftaker, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Goals Revisited Again, End of Year, and NaNo

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Plotting Or Not — Doing Away With a Dumb Debate

Posted on October 28, 2020 by dbjackson

This is my forty-second Writing-Tip Wednesday post of the year, and somehow I have gotten through forty-one posts without addressing that age-old writing question, “Do I or do I not outline?” Or put another way, “Plotter or pantser?” First, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Islevale Cycle, Novels, Thieftaker, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Plotting Or Not — Doing Away With a Dumb Debate

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Real-World Influences On Our Fiction

Posted on October 21, 2020 by dbjackson

It’s also possible, particularly with our world as fraught as it is right now, that the sheer gravity of real-world events and conflicts will pull your story in directions you don’t want it to go. These influences are powerful, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, History, kids, Novels, parenting, Politics, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Real-World Influences On Our Fiction

Monday Musings: How I’m Coping

Posted on October 19, 2020 by dbjackson

I’ve written about politics and social issues a lot in recent weeks, and I want desperately to avoid doing so again this week. It’s not that I don’t have more to say. I do. But I feel as though I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in cooking, Family, food, Music, nature, Novels, photography, Politics, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Monday Musings: How I’m Coping

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Anatomy of a Rewrite

Posted on October 7, 2020 by dbjackson

As I described in a recent Writing-tip Wednesday post, I have been working recently on a trunk series — a pair of books, the first two in a projected trilogy, that I initially wrote nearly ten years ago. I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Novels, Reading, Thieftaker, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Anatomy of a Rewrite

Writing-Tip Wednesday: “Pitch Inside”

Posted on September 30, 2020 by dbjackson

In the mid-1980s, my favorite baseball player on the planet was a young pitcher for the New York Mets named Dwight Gooden. Gooden had a meteoric career that was shortened by injuries and chronic drug abuse. But for the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Ethan Kaille, Fantasy, Islevale Cycle, Novels, Short Fiction, Thieftaker, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: “Pitch Inside”

Writing-Tip Wednesday: Crutch Words — Finding Them and Limiting Them

Posted on September 23, 2020 by dbjackson

Last week, John Hartness, my good friend and the owner and editor at Falstaff Books, posted on Facebook about something he was seeing while editing manuscripts. Many of his writers were starting too many lines of dialogue with, “So…” As … Continue reading →

Posted in Novels, Short Fiction, Writing, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Writing-Tip Wednesday: Crutch Words — Finding Them and Limiting Them

Photo Friday: A Gift From Amarid

Posted on September 11, 2020 by dbjackson

As Jaryd and Alayna reached the bottom of the marble stairs and stepped onto the cobblestone street, people from the crowd approached them. The first to reach the pair was a young girl, accompanied by her mother, who stopped in … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, Novels, photography, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Photo Friday: A Gift From Amarid