Skip to content

Tag Archives: Taming Fire

On Superhero Fantasy: My Fantasy Problem

Tweet A long time ago, my friend Dan and I got together to brainstorm a fantasy series. We did it for a handful of reasons (most of which weren’t mentioned in that article). I saw an opportunity to work on an exciting new writing project with an old friend. Dan saw an opportunity to fix […]

On Bookselling: Targeting Your Market

Tweet This week I’m talking about turning Kindle-published books into bestsellers. I’ve done it, and I’m sharing some secrets to how you can, too. Essentially, they boil down to this: Get really lucky, and watch in astonishment as your numbers start to climb. Of course, if I really felt that way, I wouldn’t be writing […]

On Bookselling: Looking for Trends

Tweet So! I told you Tuesday about my meteoric rise to bestseller status at Amazon. I showed you a screenshot of Taming Fire contending with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for the rank of 82. I told you about the productivity-killing curse of ever-changing sales numbers, and that I was over and done with it. […]

On Bookselling: Distraction

Tweet This year I’ve missed a lot of blog posts. I missed some because I was so busy with school work. I missed some because I was so miserably sick. And I missed some because I was so frantic finishing up novels or promoting them to an oblivious public. I’ve had lots of good reasons […]

On Self-Publishing: Contagion

Tweet There’s a bug that’s been going around recently. As a matter of fact, there’s two. The first is a summer cold. An upper respiratory virus. Nothing terrifying or crippling, but just enough to take a man down for six to ten days. In this case, the grown man was me. That’s only a small […]

On Storytelling Terminology: Taming Fire

Tweet I lived in Wichita, KS, for six years while I was growing up. That’s where I attended middle school and high school. That’s where I wrote my first fantasy story, and my first (terrible) novel. That’s where I met my wife. That’s where I made most of the friends who have shaped my life […]

On Storytelling Terminology: Questions (2 of 2)

Tweet This week we’re talking about industry terms, and specifically focusing on the questions that keep people reading. Yesterday I talked about the gimmicks–hooks and plates–but today I want to talk about your load-bearing questions. These are the questions that form the foundation of your story. They’re the questions that drive your protagonist through some […]

On Storytelling Terminology: Covershoot

Tweet Last week I half-apologized for a temporary and unexpected hiatus due to my busy schedule, and then it went and got busier. The weekend featured the first major event by my publishing-company-slash-engine-for-world-change, the Consortium. You can read a summary of the event that I wrote for the official page, but you’ll get a clearer […]

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Painting

When Aaron first approached me about painting the cover for his fantasy novel Taming Fire, I was skeptical. “I paint for fun,” I explained. “I’ve never undertaken a painting project so ambitious…”

On Self Publishing (cont.): Consortium Time

Tweet You almost certainly already know this about me, but I’m a captain of industry. I’m a prince of the new media. I’m a president, CEO, and executive director of a small business registered with the State of Oklahoma (national tax exempt status…pending). I’m talking about the Consortium, a cooperative of artists dedicated to an […]