But thinking makes it so. The Buddha (via Dhammapada, Buddhism): “Mind precedes thoughts, mind is their chief, their quality is made by mind; if with a base mind one speaks or acts … then suffering follows … If with a pure mind one speaks or acts … then happiness follows.” AKA, our experience of good or bad arises from the mind. AKA, “thinking makes it so.” Qur'an / Muhammad (Islam): The hadith: “Strange indeed are the affairs of the believers: for all their affairs are good.

If you are a writer, you very likely have a scene or two in your head that your mind tells you is just perfect. Maybe it is heart-wrenching, maybe it is too cool to not have in your action-adventure, spy thriller, or fantasy novel. Maybe it is a plot twist too perfect to leave out and you know every reader will never see it coming, and will be forced to reread your book to go back and see how they didn’t know. Sometimes authors say entire books come out of one scene for them

It has been said many times, many ways: kill your darlings. These last few months I have been working on a book which had been at first draft. I had written it, let it sit on a shelf for a few weeks, gave it a once over for basic plot points character arcs, and thought, “yeah that isn’t bad.” I knew it needed polish, but I have recently taken to having beta readers and editors have at my first drafts, because I don’t want to polish a pig, I want to polish the swan. (or whatev

When I am reviewing a book, it is almost always after the fact. I don’t sit down to review a book, and I don’t review every book I read. I just read and sometimes write a review. Somehow this time I knew when I picked this one up, within the first 50 pages, that I was going to be reviewing it. Maybe because I sat down with my editor’s hat on too soon after other writing-related work, but I could see the forest through the trees on Rise of Mages, and well... I just don’t care.

You are going to have a last flower. You are going to walk into your garden one day, and that day will be the last day something new blooms before winter overtakes you (at least where I live!). It will be stark, beautiful, and a reminder of the things that have bloomed before.   My Last Flower Then you will walk through your garden and see the flowers that didn’t finish. They almost bloomed, but in the lateness of the season they were halted and they will be only that: buds t

I cannot recall what I was listening to, or if it was reading that discussed the asteroid conundrum. Here is the question at hand: You are an artist of some kind, a painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and you have been working for years of your life to become gifted at what you do. You learn that the world is going to end in 30 days, and all human life and everything we have ever created is going to be destroyed. Humanity will never rise again, and all works of humanity will

Winding down doesn’t mean done. I am always a little sad at the end of every gardening year because I have to wait from about November 15th to about April 15th before I see signs of life in the garden again. Everything goes to sleep, folds up on itself, and waits. I won’t lie. I am envious of those who live in warmer climate zones sometimes and grow an extra two months or more. Fall in the damp garden I have tasks to do in the yard, like moving stones about, mulching, cutting

I’m going to give away a spoiler: in the most amazing story I have ever seen, heard, or read, the hero dies in the end. They may fight...

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If you sit down to read, you are trusting the author on many levels. If you have read them before you are trusting their tone and...

I am part of an editing and writing group, as everyone who wants to take writing seriously should be. As part of that, every two weeks we...

I am a decade late to the party, but I can’t say nothing about my most recent read, Children of Time , by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Published...

I watch a show from time to time called Gardeners’ World . One of the gardens you see frequently belongs to the host, and is a place...