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The First SH**** Draft is Done!
It’s been two years (and counting) since I published Planetary Feedlot. Even though I had a pretty good idea where I wanted to go with the sequel at the time, it seems like it’s taken forever to get it on the page. Especially since my debut novel was supposed to be just that, a stand-alone…
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Life as a Part-Time Professional Writer: Debut Novel Realizations
AKA: Trying to Climb the mountain in Flip flops When I published my first book (I say it that way because it will not be the last), my boyfriend got all excited. He loved my book, and he was sure everyone else would too. In his brain, we’d be rich in no time. No, he…
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15 Minute Stories: The 9 Lives of Bast
The kitten lazed on the floor in the patch of sunlight, reveling in the warmth on her fur. Lying on her back, she reached overhead, extending her claws, watching as the translucent weapons glistened in the light. “Where do you go every night?” She asked Thalia, the black cat who sat composed at the window…
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15 Minute Stories: All that Glitters
The Prixiator surveyed his flock with a smug satisfaction. The pews were filled with the highest ranking families in the kingdom. The men were dressed in the finest silks, the whitest shirts, with gold watches and silver canes. The women were similarly decked out in whalebone corsets, silk, lace, gold, silver, and sparkling gems. All…
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15-Minute Story: Wolf Moon
He watched as the moons rose into the night sky. The first was full, the light shining brightly over the forest. Its light filtered down through the pine trees, bathing the ground in scattered shadows. The second moon was almost half-full, its light melding and blending with the first. The third was a slowly thickening…
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Learning my craft: 15 minute story writing
So they say that writing is a craft, and like any craft, it takes time to get good. You need to practice and learn new skills and techniques. Find out your strengths and weaknesses. There’s a lot of ways to do this for writing, according to the internet. But I recently remembered something I tried…
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The Birth of Science Fiction
When I wrote Planetary Feedlot, I did not write it with a genre in mind. It was simply the story that I wanted to tell. But as I moved forward in self-publishing the book, I realized I had to pick a genre. I picked science fiction because with what little I knew; I thought it…
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My Life as a PTPW: Making words while the sun shines
As I sit typing this, I have a Roomba running around my feet knocking into chairs. A bread machine with a loose something in it is noisily making dough for dinner rolls. The oven is steam cleaning. I’m contemplating if its worth getting the fall decorations (that I meant to put out in September) out…
E.R. COOK 