While writing a post on airplane-bird collisions for the Single Ship logbook, I decided to research a bird-strike incident that occurred near Reese Air Force Base in the mid-60s. A few relevant key words entered into a Google search brought … Continue reading →
On Friday, July 30th, 1993, I created a Word document on my new Mac PowerBook that began my first novel, Oasis. My goal was to tell the story of a pilot’s career. Not mine, because I didn’t want to write … Continue reading →
Joan Upton Hall in her Rx for your Writing Ills, Self-editing for Creative Writers, calls this BVDS, or “Be-verb Dependency Syndrome.” I first met Joan through the Writers’ League of Texas’ critique program when an early draft of my current … Continue reading →
A few years ago, well, more than that, actually, before email submissions became more common than not, the “standard” submission package consisted of the query, a synopsis, and the first three chapters or fifty pages, whichever was less. Synopsis length … Continue reading →
You have finally decided the potted plant can be ignored no longer. Maybe you’re the “let ‘er flow” kind of writer who doesn’t want to think about it. Or maybe you’re at the opposite end of the scale, epitomized by … Continue reading →
I last queried my aviation mystery, Pilot Error, in 2003. A New York agent requested the full, and I’ve never forgotten the thrill of that moment. A week later he declined to offer representation and told me why. I asked … Continue reading →
In the “about” page for this logbook, I mentioned the possibility that reading carbon copies of my father’s short stories and articles when I was a kid might have planted in me the seed of a writer. This post will … Continue reading →
You’re sitting in a room with a bunch of writers talking about writing and so far there have been no fistfights. Unusual, I know, but it does happen on occasion. After awhile you notice something a bit surprising. In the … Continue reading →
