My First Novel’s Final Revision Is Finally Complete

It’s been more than eight and a half years since I started writing my first novel, but rather than at an end, I feel that I’m only at the beginning. Way back on May 21, 2013, I began jotting down some notes for an idea I had to poke fun at sci-fi clichés, and only…

Photoshop Adventures

You know, I just realized that I was so busy for so many months that I never wrote about my adventures with the first Photoshop class I've ever taken. The good news is that I learned how to use license-free images from websites such as Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay to make the cover of my…

Where I Am Published Part Dos (That’s Spanish For “Two”)

Recently, I had a short story accepted for publication in an anthology titled Arizona’s Emerging Writers. Seeing as how, earlier this year, I had a couple of poems published in Arizona’s Best Emerging Poets, I’m beginning to feel like I’m really emerging now. Okay, not really. My depression won’t let me feel that for long.…

Shameless Marketing Alert! New Page Above: Where I Am Published

If anyone cares to notice (or simply cares), I added a new page to my blog, next to Bio, Contact, and The Most Astonishing Fact. The new page is titled Where I Am Published, and I can start it now because… I am published. Recently, two of my poems were accepted and published in a…

Reading Meaning

This past Saturday, I spent six straight hours finishing revisions for Chapter 11 of my first novel. Maybe total burnout had struck my brain, I don’t know, but afterward, I thought about what I wrote, focusing in on the possible meaning behind the repetition of a specific line. For a tiny bit of background (no…

A Giraffe, A Canadian, And Shakira All Walk In To A Bar…

Three things: 1. Am I the only person on this planet who would take a picture of a giraffe sitting outside of a children’s orthodontist office? 2. Do you love Canadians? So do I. And like me, you can show your love for a Canadian by following the blog of this up-and-coming writer who happens…

Just Win (The Super Bowl), Baby

Three years ago, I wrote a blog post concerning my Oakland Raiders and the fact that they stunk so much that I was hoping for them to get even one, lone win that season. It’s amazing how quickly the Raiders have turned around, last season becoming a post-season team for the first time in 13…

Picture Prompts With K.J. Chapman

If you love picture prompts, be sure to check in with author K.J. Chapman. On her blog, other than her bountiful supply of book reviews and updates on her exciting writings, can be found the occasional picture prompt that serves to stir the imagination and spark your creative juices. A recent picture prompt that I…

My OCD Hates Me Right Now

As I’m revising the first chapter of my first book (yet again), I can’t help but to feel that this chapter needs to be later in the book. Don’t get me wrong, Chapter 1 should be Chapter 1, but the way I wrote the book, the first three chapters are all introduction. The first chapter…

No, Darth Vader, Now The Circle Is Complete

After four years of work, yesterday, I completed the first draft of my third book, the last in the trilogy. No applause? Okay, I’ll keep going. Anyway, I can’t really say that I feel a monstrous sense of relief or that I feel any different. I mean, yeah, I snagged a Pizza Hut pizza (pepperoni…