Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Well, at least for me, one of the biggest Conventions of my year has arrived: Convergence, which is being held in Bloomington, Minnesota, Independence Day weekend, Thursday through Sunday July 5-8.  This Con has been around for many years and now occupies multiple hotels. There are tons of invited guests, including Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear,  [ Read More ]

by Anne E. Johnson I’ve been a fan of science fiction since I was in high school, but Green Light Delivery was my first attempt to write a novel-length work in this genre. Of course, any type of fiction is a challenge to do well. But I found that writing science fiction offers special hurdles  [ Read More ]

Recently I’ve been copyediting The Very Best Book Of Baby Names by Barbara Kay Turner, and it’s gotten me thinking a lot about naming characters.  Character naming is an important consideration for many reasons. One, you want memorable names which stick with readers for a long time. Two, you want names that are decipherable by  [ Read More ]

You know, things don’t always go the way that we expect them to when publishing a book. This week is one of those times. I expected the print release of my second novel in the Davi Rhii series, The Returning, to be the real highlight of my week. Those plans have now been pushed back a bit  [ Read More ]

All right, I’m skipping the Write Tip this week because, well, it’s been a long week. Other than having a new book out this week, it’s really pretty much been awful. BUT I did just finish a great read, and I decided it’s so good, I just had to share it with you. In fact,  [ Read More ]

There’s something about the release of a second novel that’s really special. Despite having edited an anthology this year, adding another book to the roster, especially in the same series and another original just makes you feel like you’ve proven yourself all over again. Not just a one book wonder, so to speak, but here to  [ Read More ]

Well, this is very hard to write. I hate being anything but positive in energy, and more than that, I hate asking for help. I was raised in  a family that helps and gives to others, not the other way around. We’re mostly very lucky and blessed and have always had a lot of blessings  [ Read More ]

Here’s the cover to the next issue of Tales Of The Talisman, and I got a mention. This is the third short story I ever wrote. Quite excited about it. Very much influenced by my time in El Paso. Editor David Lee Summers is a close friend and I’m excited and honored that he liked it  [ Read More ]

Today’s guest is one of my favorite people, a local friend who’s talented and writes both mystery and speculative fiction as well as poetry. Her debut mystery novel Every Last Secret was published this Spring by Thomas Dunne and tells the story of a college police chief and Cherokee Indian investigating a murder on a college  [ Read More ]

Since I am doing a guest Write Tip at Elizabeth Spann Craig’s Mystery Writing Is Murder Blog today, I didn’t want to post another Write Tip here. I’ll have a new one Thursday instead. But I did invite Leah Petersen to guest with a funny post on Punctuations and Personality!  Her follow up post to  [ Read More ]

I don’t do reviews here very often. And this will likely be a bit more of an essay than a review (fair warning). But the reasons are complex. As a fellow writer and professional who is friends or (at least) acquaintances will a lot of other professionals/ writers, I know how hard writers work and  [ Read More ]

Although I am an editor myself,  my publisher rightly and smartly assigns me editors for my books.  The Founding Fathers built checks and balances into our government for a reason and, for similar reasons, they are invaluable in the editorial process. Bet you had no idea editing is so patriotic? Recently the editor who edits  [ Read More ]