Passels and Pascals and Plants – Oh, Sigh

I’ve been distracted, lately. Because of the usual – trying to get the kids to eat something other than Nutella-slathered waffles; wedging myself onto rush hour subways and then propping myself up at my office desk for 8 hours; hacking triffid-sized weeds out of the...

The Pattern Scars – Chapter One, Entire

A tale was always told, in the lower city and in the castle (and I know, because I’ve lived in both places): When Teldaru, who was later seer to King Haldrin, was a boy of five, a powerful and much-hated lord ordered him to fetch a flagon of wine. The boy did the...

Blood and Gut

I’m about to get my editor’s comments back on The Pattern Scars.  It’s been seven years since I had professional editorial feedback on a book of mine, so I’m excited and trepidatious (used to think I’d made this word up; Microsoft spell check still does), and...

In which I read (and perish)

First: my appearance at the Chiaroscuro Reading Series back in January.  I read Chapter 1 of The Pattern Scars – because I always fear that I’ll ramble if I decide to read from, say, Chapter 5 and need to set things up for the audience first. Peter Watts...

Opening the Shoe Box (A Letter to my First Agent)

Dear Jeff, It’s been years. Six, to be exact. I wasn’t much of a catch, in 2000. I was an unpublished author who presented you with a first novel that was long on semi-coloned, polyhyphenated-adjectival lyricism and short on plot. You took a pretty gigantic leap of...