More about Smashwords and Digital Rights Management

It’s been about a week since we uploaded our book list to Smashwords. It’s a decision I don’t regret. Sure there’s still raging debate in the publishing community regarding digital rights management. After reading a great deal about it I’ve come to the following conclusion: It doesn’t matter. What? Yep. It’s doesn’t matter. Digital rights management doesn’t matter. The reason I’ve come to that conclusion follows this path of logic. In print media, after a…

Environmental Detail in Writing

Of late I’ve been often asked how it is I work environmental detail into my writing. Up until now I’ve never really thought about that much, partly because of the way I write (very tightly-focused character-driven stories) and partly because of major influences on my writing, which, if closely analyzed, will reveal that one is in fact a result of the other. Because of such weighted character import in my work, all environmental descriptions must…

Do Your Research

If you’re going to be a writer of any kind, you have to research. No escaping it. Fail to and a reader somewhere in the world will catch that one inconsistency and call you on it, and for them, because of that oversight, the story will most likely lose credibility. You may even lose them as a follower, not something to dismiss with a pshaw in this new age of immediate entertainment gratification. Recently I…

In Remembrance

A departure today in remembrance of those who have served, and those who have died serving, the countries they love. Whether that service was by choice or unwilling conscription makes little difference after the fact. What remains is that these men and women were and are subjected to what we ask of no one in normal society, that they face irrationality and fear, prejudice and privation, struggle and death, and then return to us whole,…

Swimming the Reef

Or Questionable Author Services With the proliferation of social network services and instant gratification, it seems more and more questionable consultants have slithered out from the reefs, people willing to monetize your virtual socialization outreach, maximize the lateral and vertical interconnectivity of your website, and, if you’re involved in the arts, people willing to create blockbuster plots and unforgettable characters, all for a fee, of course. What, you think these people are working this hard…