Category Archives: A Writer’s Journey

Kiwi in US Writing Market

Posted on

I had originally written this post for a site called EpicFantasy.org. However, since the post went live back on April 25, 2016, the site has gone down. As such, I’ve decided to include the post here on my personal blog instead. So here goes:

Kiwi in US Writing Market

New Zealand… Aotearoa, as the native Maori call it — the land of the long white cloud. It’s a country filled with majestic beauty: a mountain range that spans the length of half the country; volcanic lakes and desert terrain; beaches within a few short minutes drive of any major metropolis; secluded forest bush that takes you back in time; and farmland everywhere you turn. Many settlements could be frozen in time, and with the exception of the cars driving down the street, you would never know that you were in the 21st century. New Zealand has become the film industry’s location of choice with many historic and fantasy blockbusters filmed here, including The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and the epic drama The Last Samurai. (Sorry to burst the bubble, people, but the images of Mount Fuji in that film were actually of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont.)Read More→

Can’t is an evil word… It shouldn’t exist.

Posted on

Recently, scrolling through my Twitter feed, I came across a post about the wonderful word can’t.

If you say you cant, you are only bullshitting yourself

(As much as I would have loved to shown you the original tweet, the user has long since left Twitter.)

You ignore the little bit of swearing, but of course I had to reply.Read More→

Writing helps sooth the savage beast…

Posted on

There are many psychologists out there that will gladly tell you that art, in its varied forms, is a great therapeutic tool. Drawing is often used with children to help them deal with whatever is troubling them, helping them to express their thoughts on paper, albeit in a cryptic fashion.

Writing  is like that for me.Read More→

Criticism and Sharing Writing Tidbits

Posted on

There are times in our lives when we will come up against naysayers, the ones that want to shoot us down, those that believe we have no right to be where we are. For the most part, these people will be those who we don’t know from a bar of soap, and will likely be the ones to give a writer a negative review. Some will veil personal attacks under the guise of trying to better things for all, but you know the truth. They’re there, so we have to accept it. And for those wanting to be professional writers, criticism is just part of the journey.Read More→

Editing Headaches…

Posted on

Editing... The dreaded beast seems to have come to haunt me again. Just when I thought I had finished with this manuscript, there it is again. The revisions just go on, and on, and on, and on... Did I mention that they go on and on?

When you're writing, it's the inner critic that whispers sweet little nothings about self-doubt that just won't go away. If you're anything like me, you type so fast that sometimes your brain struggles to keep up; the spelling goes out the window and the autocorrect monster just gobbles up that carefully chosen word... without you noticing!

But the editor in me can't just let a new piece of writing go unchecked. I always go back and reread what I had written after a break (even a break as short as a toilet break). I see the punctuation errors, the grammar flaws, and the faults in the writing itself. I struggle in a big way to shut off the editor brain long enough to actually do any writing.

Read More→