Time for another update on my writing progress. As a quick reminder, I'm working through a first edit of a rough draft of my fantasy adventure novel, The Five Elements.

Here's where I'm at: I reduced the total pages from last week's 381 to 376, and the currently edited page went up from 343 to 348. That gives me a total increase of 10 pages over last week and results in 28 pages left to go to finish.

<aside>I'm curious, how many pages do most people get through in a week? I'm not talking about full-time writers—surely they do more. But for those of us holding down regular jobs and who &qu... [More]

It's been a busy week of writing, work, a little cycling, and, of course, web browsing. Enjoy the fruits of my labor (or, the labor of others, I should say).

A Fleet of 1500 Cloud-Seeding Ships Could Stop Global Warming, Say Scientists
Using a fleet of 1500 wind-powered ships that cruise the oceans autonomously, spraying massive plumes of salt water into the air, we could reverse the effects of global warming within years.

How To Cook Children: A Grisly Recipe Book by Martin Howard and Colin Stimpson
What a yummy title, especially if you're a witch by the name of Esmelia Sniff who draws children to her gingerbread... [More]

NOTE: While Tor is making two e-books available simultaneously as free downloads (this one and Dogland, by Will Shetterly), I am splitting them up for purposes of my Tor Free E-books Giveaway series.

Tor has reinstated their free e-book giveaway program wherein they will make available for download one free e-book per month. I don't think this continuation of the program has an end date currently, so enjoy. The only catch is that you will have to join their site as a member in order to get the downloads, and each e-book will only be available for a limited amount of time.

This month's free giveaway is War of the Oaks, by Emma ... [More]

A funny thing happened yesterday. I had begun editing chapter 22, which just so happens to be the second to last chapter in my book. Because of some scene shuffling, re-ordering, and previous edits, I had to change the way in which the chapter starts. I was really hoping for a big writing day. What I got was borderline writer's block for much of my writing time, to the point where I was sitting at my desk, staring at the computer screen, and nothing was happening.

Now, I don't believe in writer's block. In my case, it wasn't even so much that I wasn't coming up with anything. It was that I wasn't coming up with w... [More]