Anyone who knows me as only an acquaintance from one of my various might be surprised to to find out I consider myself an optimist. Heck even some of the people who know me only from my online presence might agree with them. I generally present myself as sarcastic, skeptical,…
Over on my official writer/storyteller page on Facebook (http://facebook.com/bardscloak) I have this thing I do every once in a while I call a "Daily Rant." The "daily" part of that is a misnomer, as they don't come every day; however,…
Last Saturday, the 29th of September, I participated in an event called Tough Mudder. This event takes place all over the world as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. It's a ten to eleven mile course with twenty-five obstacles designed by British Special Forces. To get an…
This is a holiday I can get behind. Well...I can get behind most holidays, but I'm particularly fond of this one. Encouraging people to go out and get a book is a really cool idea! At first this might seem like just one more "commercial"…
I just back from Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention. First off, for all those people keeping up with SPELLPUNK, I apologize for missing last Friday and Monday. I got really wrapped up in the whirlwind that was World Con. I'll be making it up to…
Many things, but in this case I'm specifically speaking about short fiction. I both am and am not a short story guy. I appreciate the short story as a form for several reasons. For one, the short story is the back bone of science fiction and fantasy. If…
I've been working on SPELLPUNK off and on for the last twenty or so years. It's odd that with all the changes and mutatations I've taken it through, it's still roughly the same thing I started with. Yes, it's gone…
Here we go again. Book launch. Nerves and jitters and borderline freaking out. Most writers I know, no matter how cool they appear on the outside have a little bundle of "Please, please, please let people buy and like my book." I'm no different, except that…
Wow...and again...wow! What an awesome weekend. For those of you who don't know, this last weekend being July 5th through 8th, I attended my first science fiction convention, WesterCon65 as a pro. True, I'd gone to BayCon in May, and I'd evening…
Ever since I dove into the world of Indie publication, I've been hearing over and over, "You have to brand yourself," from a variety of successful writers. The explanation is that a "writer" transforms him or herself into a "brand," he or…
