Category Archives: Writing Life

Professional Wednesday: DragonCon and Professional Community

Posted on September 6, 2023 by dbjackson

I am back from DragonCon, and I have a shortened week in which to get done a great deal, so today’s post will be fairly brief. Mostly, I want to say thank you — to the convention organizers, who did … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Heading To DragonCon!

Posted on August 30, 2023 by dbjackson

This coming weekend, I will be in Atlanta for DragonCon, the annual highlight of my professional calendar. For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomenon known as DragonCon, it is a huge convention that takes over Atlanta’s Peachtree Center every … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Reading Books Several Times

Posted on August 23, 2023 by dbjackson

I have just started reading a book that I have read at least one time before. Maybe two. It is Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay, a terrific historical fantasy set in a world modeled after Tang Dynasty China. The … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Writing Work-For-Hire Projects

Posted on August 16, 2023 by dbjackson

Love what you write. I say it a lot. It is the single piece of advice I always offer when asked what tips I would give to young writers (young of age, young of career). And I believe the advice … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: In Defense of Simplicity

Posted on August 9, 2023 by dbjackson

Today, as I was sitting at my desk, staring at a blank screen, trying to decide what I could possibly have left to write about when it comes to giving writing advice, a familiar song came on my Apple Music … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: One Last Teaser, and a Plea For Help — Please Read

Posted on August 2, 2023 by dbjackson

Believe it or not, writers don’t particularly enjoy asking you to buy and read our stuff. We are not, as a rule, good at sales or comfortable touting our own work. We prefer to write, to spend time with our … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: The Last Book of a Series

Posted on July 26, 2023 by dbjackson

A week and a half from today, on Friday, August 4, The Chalice War: Sword, the final book in my Celtic urban fantasy trilogy, will be released by Bell Bridge Books. (The first two books, The Chalice War: Stone and … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings, part VI — Final Thoughts

Posted on July 19, 2023 by dbjackson

This week I close out my Professional Wednesday feature on “Beginnings, Middles, and Endings” with some general observations about narrative structure. If you are just coming to this series of posts, I would recommend you go back and read the … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: A Strange Post In Times Of Personal Struggle

Posted on July 17, 2023 by dbjackson

This has not been the best week for my family and me. It was, actually, the sort of week that not so long ago would have convinced me to take a break from blogging at all, to say “I need … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings, part IV — Keeping Our Plots Tight

Posted on July 5, 2023 by dbjackson

Today, I bring you one more “Middles” post in my several-weeks-long feature on “Beginnings, Middles, and Endings.” You can find past posts in the series here, here, and here. I made the self-evident point a couple of weeks ago that … Continue reading →

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