Spaghetti Western Trailer for "The Mandalorian"

Short Film Friday: The Kid

Friday Film: CC

Happy Thanksgiving, Humans!

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.
—Billie Holiday

I'll be writing records until I'm dead, whether people like it or not.
—Alanis Morissette

Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure.
—Robert McKee

I do believe that tenacity counts. Not going away matters.
—Carole King

There were times when I was afraid I would never sell another book, but I never doubted I'd write another book.
—George R.R. Martin

All you need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then you can turn the world upside down.
—Friedrich Nietzsche

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
—Stephen King

If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great.
—Tom Hanks

Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.
—August Wilson

Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.
—John Cleese

NEW: The Outsiders

My most recent short story was published in the anthology:

     THE OUTSIDERS

The short story is entitled: BRAUEN'S MINE

This short story is one of the Solstice 31 universe tales. It describes the origin story of Goris Base, an important location in my next novel.

This volume is also filled with other stories from a collection of up and coming authors I have been honored to get to know. This group constantly helps me improve my writing.

Check it out.

--Available in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tips: Female Character Pet Peeves

Friday Film Short: Custom Order

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from.
—Arthur Miller

Trust your reader, don’t try to describe things. Give a hint and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination.
—Paulo Coelho

Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.
—Rod Serling

I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.
—Sylvia Plath

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.
—T.S. Elliot

The way I write is really like putting one foot in front of the other. I really let the characters do most of the work, they start talking and they just lead the way.
—Quentin Tarantino

You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.
—Joss Whedon

I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.
—Françoise Sagan

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
—Judy Garland

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.
—Stephen King

It must be November...

Short Film Friday: Smash and Grab

--Great Scifi Short from Pixar!

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.
—Somerset Maugham

When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.
—Stephen King

It seems that every time I stick my neck out, I get my foot into something else.
—Patsy Cline

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.
—John Cleese

The conscious mind is the editor, and the subconscious mind is the writer.
—Steve Martin

Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.
—Jack London

If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story.
—Terry Pratchett

Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.
—Neil Gaiman

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
—Mark Twain

Tuesday Tips: From Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Writing Tips:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Mmmmm pie...

10 Truths about Writing

Short Film Friday: Negative Space

Images that Inspire

Quotes of the Week

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
—Maya Angelou

Not all those who wander are lost.
—J.R.R. Tolkien

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart. 
—Anne Frank

The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.
—Sylvia Plath

You are what you settle for.
—Janis Joplin

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.
—Barbara Kingsolver

Fall in love and stay in love. Do what you love, don’t do anything else. Don’t write for money. Write because you love to do something. If you write for money, you won’t write anything worth reading.
—Ray Bradbury

My advice to young writers is to read. Find an author whose attitude you share and study the author’s work. Learn by imitating until you find your own voice, keeping in mind that style comes out of attitude.
—Elmore Leonard

When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.
—Stephen King

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
—W. Somerset Maugham

PREDATOR: Dark Ages

A fan-made film...