Category: On Writing

Rekindling the Romance

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I’ve been getting deep into Upgrade’s sequel. It’s hard to return to a world five years on, but it’s also hard to put on pants and I do that most days. Most. Here’s a scene I’m working on. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it for the final. Here is the first time in the new book we see Harry and Lace. You probably shouldn’t read this if you haven’t read Upgrade, because it will quite probably cock up a bunch of the emotional pull of a subplot. You’ve been warned. Harry leaned close to Lace, smelling the back of her neck. She wore her hair up, a hint of a smile on her face at his touch. “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” “I own this place,” she said. “It’s my place.” Harry Read More …

The Names We Regret

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You might remember my take on the power of names. I figured since I know about a zillion authors, I’d get their take and we’d turn it into something fun. We all make mistakes. Characters we’ve named without considering all the angles. I put out the call: what’s your favorite and least favorite character’s name, and why? And — this is vital — would you kill off the least-favorite in order to not have to type those foul letters anymore? Let’s see where we ended up. As a side note, and not in any way resentful, fuck all y’all with no regrets. Michael Cooper My favorite character name is obviously Tanis Richards. Tanis was the name of my first girlfriend, and also the name of a cool character from DragonLance. Often people think its a male name (because of DragonLance) Read More …

Delilah: Part Nine

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Fair warning: this is your last Delilah snippet! Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger. Hold on for a store link at the end. If you haven’t encountered the awesome of Delilah before, start at the beginning. The room had one exit, a double door leading further into the facility. A double door meant they were used to taking people through here on a gurney. It was secured, biometrics and link security barring entry. Her optics scanned the room beyond, giving her overlay something to work with. It looked like another guard facility, desks and coffee machines and humans arrayed around. Delilah didn’t care about desks and coffee machines, but she cared about the three guards. They were already moving towards the door. Perfect. One less thing to hack. She waited for them to reach the other side of the door, watching Read More …

Remastering at Speed

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Y’all want to see how the work on Upgrade’s remaster is coming along? Truth, it’s taking longer than I reckoned. My writing back in the day was … well, let’s agree my craft has progressed a shade or two since then. I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out, but to get to the satisfaction point I need to wade through the mire first. ICYMI, I mentioned I’m re-editing Upgrade prior to the sequel. This quick vid shows just how much of each chapter is changed. I’m keeping it pure so Han still shoots first, but also making it cleaner (read: deleting shit even I don’t understand anymore).

An Upgraded Upgrade

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Yeah, I went there with the post title. Upgrade is the book I am most asked for a sequel for. Sadly, it didn’t sell very well, so I never completed the next two (2!) books I’d planned in the series. Upgrade offers a complete story, but it leaves the door open for said sequels, leaving many people with nothing to do but send me angry emails with the subject: Where is the fucking Upgrade sequel?! I hear you. So, you’ll get the next story before year’s end (assuming I don’t get cancer and die first, or something else as dire … new kittens arrived, and they’re hell on productivity). Before I launch the new book, I need to ask myself a really important question. Why didn’t the first one sell well? I’d originally dismissed lackluster sales a result of people not Read More …

Delilah: Part Eight

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We’re getting close to the end. If this story is new to you, why not start at the beginning? Tarmac Bourbon was how she’d left it, minus Ranger Rusty on the door. Delilah figured him for needing time in the chair too. Those repairs wouldn’t come cheap, but that was life in the syndicates. The air car disgorged Delilah, Scott, and Lily onto wet asphalt, rising into the sky in a roar of turbines and a spray of driven rain. Delilah caught Sampson’s eyes as the door shut between them, hope lost, gone, like it had never been. They’d be taking him to a reprogramming facility. Reed would connect a hard line and hack his link storage. Extract his secrets. It felt like too big a thing to worry about. Beer was easier to focus on. She stepped into Tarmac Read More …

Delilah: Part Seven

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If you and Delilah haven’t met, go introduce yourself. Who was already on the move, trying to get a little cover. They’d made it to a marble statue near the entrance. She would have shrugged in a more relaxed situation — just because you were handed a coilgun didn’t mean you knew what it could do. These mercs seemed to have no idea. She took another breath in, then squeezed the coilgun’s trigger for two and a half seconds. Over fifty rounds punctured the walls of the house, chattering into the statue, shedding marble like big chunks of hail. Her EM emitter was still raining confusion to the mercs outside, and the bullets delivered judgement that the EM couldn’t. The merc’s body dissolved on her overlay, wireframe distributing into a wider area. Good effect on target. The third merc hadn’t Read More …