Rejection stings. No doubt about it. There’s no feeling quite like putting your best effort into a piece of writing, sending it out to an acquiring editor or prospective agent, then waiting nervously for weeks or months only to hear, “Thanks, but no”. …

Author’s note: this one was originally published a few years ago over at my now defunct blog The Academy. I don’t normally recycle content, but seeing as how today is Star Wars day (May the 4th…get it?), it seemed like a good time to open up the vault. Enjoy! To…

Literary ventriloquism and the art of narration in storytelling — Every story is told by someone. In fiction, this role is given to the narrator. I’m not necessarily talking about the author — the person sitting behind the keyboard furiously bashing out words at top speed — but rather the entity that relates the tale to the reader. For example…

The novel. It is Mt. Everest for fiction writers, that singular, seemingly insurmountable challenge we all aspire to overcome. Tell me, who hasn’t sat at their keyboard, fingers at the ready, staring at a blank page and daydreaming about the moment when we can finally stand atop the world and…

pain, to begin with flat slap of water, falling into the cauldron

“We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” -President John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” -Steve Martin Amazon would have me in a second. My manuscript is complete, all 94,000 words of it, and impatiently waiting on my hard drive…

Free Verse —

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” -Voltaire America just tried to stupid itself out of the airlock. Lemme ‘splain. Avenue 5 is a TV show about a group of people on a cruise ship in space. A series of mishaps turns what should have…

I received this in my inbox from a literary agent today: “Dear Brandon, Thank you for sharing your work with me. I know that writing a book is a time-consuming and emotional process, so I appreciate the effort you have expended to reach this point in your publishing journey. …