Prince has to tell these stories because I never met this woman. He talked to her for the first time about a day after he was born at a workshop in Chicago. She was one of the editors there to grant what wisdom she could after reading just five pages of our work. She told… Continue reading The Optimist
Tag: Prince
The Genius
It started with a dead wasp. Prince was ten minutes old when he walked into The Genius’s hotel room, rolled up his pages and killed her intruder. They sat down and she pulled out his pages. “I have been looking forward to you,” she said. “This is some of the greatest world building I have… Continue reading The Genius
The Big Sister
The best book I have ever read in my life was given to me as a beta read by a woman I will call The Big Sister. We are going to go a ways around in order to get to her, but I need to focus you on this woman. And the way her book… Continue reading The Big Sister
The Courtesan
At the workshop in 2008, they broke us into writing groups for peer critique. I had a few talented people in my group, then I had The Courtesan. Have you ever met someone in your craft, be it accountant, writer, pizza slinger or teacher, who was just so far ahead of you that they pissed… Continue reading The Courtesan
The Crystal Pistol
“You’re here for the workshop, right?” Prince said. She was a cute mom of a woman and she looked up at him and smiled. “I am.” “Then tell me about your book.” Her face lit up. “Well, I am really nervous. The agent has been ripping everyone apart.” “He is pretty brutal but that is… Continue reading The Crystal Pistol
The Roller Derby Queen
The workshop in 2008 was looming. I had fear in my gut and no idea what I was going to do. A New York agent had 50 pages of my book. A legitimate editor had fifteen, five other editors and creatives had five pages, and I had a constant panic attack moving through my system… Continue reading The Roller Derby Queen
Lost Confessions: The Workshop
— 2008 — This is an awesome story! Have you ever known beyond your smallest doubt that you were exactly where you were meant to be, or doing the thing you were supposed to be doing? That is the story I am going to tell you now. I wrote a book. It is a decent… Continue reading Lost Confessions: The Workshop
Lost Confessions: Living Room 5
You’re not going to fucking believe this. Shit I don’t know if I do. I wasn’t going to blog about this at all, but I figured I had already drawn you in with the first few, so I might as well put out the final entry on this subject. After this one, I am done… Continue reading Lost Confessions: Living Room 5
The Prince of Darkness
“I can’t. I just can’t. You have to find another.” Shadow was crying. It was 2008 and we were stuck. We had signed up for a writing workshop and paid a hefty sum. The cost of admission included a reading from seven people. Five editors would read the first five pages. They would weigh in… Continue reading The Prince of Darkness
The Arsonist’s Guide to Creative Writing
I have heard a lot of terms, heard even more descriptions, about how people write. I’m gonna run through a few of my favorites. Pantser: These are the writers that fly by the seat of their pants. They have no idea what they are going to write before it is on the page. The most… Continue reading The Arsonist’s Guide to Creative Writing
