I had the pleasure of being on a fan panel for Siren at this year’s DragonCon, so my review includes both my own thoughts and those of my fellow panelists. We generally agreed on most of it with one notable exception, which I’ll discuss below. By the way, there will be spoilers. If you’re not…
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People often ask me how I manage a full-time private practice, which is a job and a half, and a writing career. The answer I would want to give used to be, “not very well.” It wasn’t always that way. But in the past few years, all the tasks became too much for me to…
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Yes, I know it’s Will & Grace, but WordPress won’t let me use an ampersand in the post title. I recently finished watching the end of the most recent season of the Will & Grace reboot. At the end of it, Grace, who’s been dating Noah – played by David Schwimmer – gets on…
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I love the steampunk genre, especially the alternate history aspect. The Art of Piracy, my story for the Rogue Skies box set, is set in the same alternate timeline as my Aether Psychics series. How can you change history to work for your own fiction? Here are some ideas. First, figure out your why. Some people…
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Ah, yes, the lazy days of summer…for some. For us sleep psychologists, it can be the busiest time of the year. I suspect that’s because people’s schedules are more open with school being out, but summer has its own sleep challenges. Let’s talk about how to combat the most common ones. Chill out… at night.…
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I originally came up with the idea for this post before going to a conference in San Antonio in June. Everyone likes tacos, right? They’re like sandwiches, but people actually look forward to eating them. There’s an infinite number of toppings and combos, so there’s something for everyone. Here, in no particular order, are my…
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Being a writer is awesome. You just sit down, close your eyes, say your mantra, put fingers to keys… And floof! The words flow in a torrent of rainbows, unicorns, plot twists, and… Yeah, that’s not how it happens. Writing is hard work, especially for those of us with day jobs. I use a lot…
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At its heart, Good Omens is a story of free will vs. fate. Most of the characters, whether they’re angels, demons, a witchfinder who’s obsessed with how many nipples people have, and the descendant of a witch, move through the stories driven by prophecies and their perceived purposes and fates. The two main characters Crowley…
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As a psychologist, I love the question of why I and others like fantasy. There’s definitely the aspect of wanting more magic in life, but I believe it goes deeper. Many of my clients’ problems boil down to how they handle real or perceived power imbalances. Fantasy is a great way to explore power and…
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A film’s soundtrack can be one of the most powerful aspects of the movie-going experience, but what about the movies we play in our heads while writing or reading? If you ask authors about their writing routines, many will say they write to music. My urban fantasy gets a pop music soundtrack. My steampunk? Classical…
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