Way back in the spring of 2002, at a time when I was looking everywhere for opportunities to improve my skills as a would-be writer, the Maui Writers Foundation held a week-long writers retreat in Rome, Italy. The plan was to have attendees tour various historical landmarks in search of inspiration, while working under the …
Among the perks of being an author is the opportunities you’re given to tread in professional social circles. Whether you belong might be a subject of debate between you and the bouncer at any given event. But once inside, you never know what moments you might find yourself privy to. At a gathering last week …
Back from the San Diego Comic-Con. If you were brave enough to claw your way through the exhibit hall, you might have stumbled across the scene below, in which the recently released fantasy anthology Unfettered was displayed in close proximity to the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James. Struck me as odd. Not exactly a …
Lunch with Robert Jordan In my first appearance at Comic-Con as a published author, I found myself on a discussion panel about writing fight scenes, headlined by none other than the legendary author of The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan. I’d seen R.J. on a panel the year before, so I knew the man had quite …
The Magical World of Disney This one speaks for itself, does it not?
A Run-in with Christopher Paolini In late 2003, the biggest story in publishing was the runaway success of Christopher Paolini’s debut fantasy novel, Eragon. In fact, I feel my own book deal was made possible, at least in part, by Eragon’s enormous popularity. I say this because, in November of that year, my agent brought Eragon to …
Sneak Preview of 300 In the summer of 2006, hype was already building around the pending spring release of the film version of 300, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name. Director Zack Snyder was on hand with Miller and actors Gerard Butler and David Wenham to promote the film with an exclusive trailer, …
The Ghirardelli “Earthquake” Location, location, location. One of the best aspects of the San Diego Comic-Con is its proximity to the city’s historic Gaslamp District, a downtown area of restaurants, bars, and shopping as entertaining as the Las Vegas strip (minus the slot machines and pornographic flyers). My favorite hangout there is the Ghirardelli Ice …
One of the perks of being an author is the opportunity to prostitute—er, I mean, promote—your work at various conferences throughout the world. Over the past five or six years, I’ve attended events as close to home as the L.A. Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus, and as far away as Worldcon in …
I’m home from a trip to Denver, where I was invited to be one of the guest speakers at this year’s Colorado Gold Writers Conference, courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I hadn’t heard of either the organization or its conference prior to the invitation — an admission that seemed to offend some of …
