Category: writing

Recently, a friend asked me on Instagram of all places how I came up with what I write about–along with a few other questions about what’s changed between the time I started writing and now.  My answer to the first question is very much the same as the answer that other writers tend to give: often, it starts with “what if” or “I wonder” or being inspired by something I’ve seen or read, both fiction and non-fiction.  As a writer, you let your imagination take flight as you ask questions and let the dots connect themselves.

Writers have many influences, and some of them we don’t always talk about.  For me, many of mine are things like history research I’ve done, random articles I’ve read on many subjects, and–this being the one I don’t always talk about–the television shows I watched as a teenager and young adult.  Not all of them were great, most of them were genre dramas, and many of them I still love despite their flaws.  In some ways I can credit my mother for my love of genre fiction–she’s the one who introduced me to shows like Star Trek and the X-Files (she was a casual fan of both before I ever stumbled into them) and both of my parents nurtured my voracious reading habit from an early age.  That’s the other secret to successful writers–not only do we basically maintain a file of potential ideas that we’ve gathered over the years (whether written down or mentally), but we also read.  We read a lot.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, reading both helps.

As a writer, you have to give yourself permission to be inspired by anything–from what I understand, it’s the same with being an artist.  That’s what I’ve done for years and I like to think I’ve gotten better at it as time’s gone on.

I suppose all of you will be the judge of that.

There are some pretty extensive plans in the works for the UNSETIC Files universe, which will keep me writing for a long time to come.  I am trying to keep most things in chronological order as much as possible, in part so I can foreshadow and weave themes and subplots through the greater universe.

UNSETIC Files is also linked to the Lost Angels Chronicles–it’s all the same world–and there is heavy crossover between both.  As of right now, there are three books planned for the Lost Angels series (one published, two in the process of being written): What Angels Fear, When All’s Said and Done, and Universe.  When All’s Said and Done is actually set directly before many of the events that take place in Lost and Found and links back to the request–and the mystery–that got Jim McCullough recruited into UNSETIC in the first place (thus linking back to Between Fang and Claw).   Both When All’s Said and Done and Lost and Found will in turn link back to an upcoming project with the working title of Pawns.

There are a few other projects in the works–the ones listed below being the ones that have either have some sort of beginning or a more extensive draft in the works already.

UNSETIC Files: The Truth Will Set You Free
UNSETIC Files: Ghosts and the Future
Lost Angel Chronicles: Wonderland
Serial fiction (on hold pending rewrites) The Man Who Made Monsters (UNSETIC Files/Hunters crossover)
UNSETIC Files: Girl from a Brigadoon
UNSETIC Files: Come What May
UNSETIC Files: White Rabbit

These are just the projects that are planned with titles–there obviously will probably be many, many more stories to tell in the series.  Stay tuned!

…when you go to bed, have an awesome idea for something when you lay down but need to sleep to be up for work in the morning, but have just enough time before leaving to get thoughts on paper.

Locked and loaded to write a draft of Epsilon: Shattered in July for Camp NaNoWriMo.  For those of you who don’t know what it is, Camp NaNoWriMo is a spring and summer version of the yearly NaNoWriMo, which is in November.  For Camp, you can set your own word count goal and you’re sorted into communities called cabins rather than broader regional communities.  As of right now, I’m pretty sure I’m still in a cabin with some fellow writers from GVSU.

Shattered will fill the gap between Broken Stars and Redeemer.  Ren will be its narrator.

Stay tuned for so much writing in July (and, honestly, for the rest of this month).

I’ve mulled it over and decided—in addition to the other goodies this month, folks supporting me at $20 and higher are going to get a free, signed hard copy of one of my books!