Buk Tu edits have been going well, though slowed by Labor Day weekend. We’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from our editor, along with his usual copious edits. Hopefully the pace will pick up, now that we’re past the holiday, and we’ll be able to crank out the final draft in a timely fashion. I’ll be honest with you, dear reader, that I’ve been taking a bit of a writing break. I never do that on purpose, because I know from past experience how very difficult it is f

There are a number of stages that we go through as writers to prepare a manuscript for publication. This differs slightly from writer to writer, though I imagine many of the pieces are similar. The process that Sam and I go through is as follows. Step 1: Brainstorming Step 2: Composition Step 3: Self Revision Step 4: Editor read-thru Step 5: Revision Step 6: Beta readers Step 7: Revision Step 8: Editing Step 9: Revision Step 10: Copy editing & Proof reading For those of you w

I have a great love of epigraphs. With my own work, I am particularly fond of fictional quotations or works from in-world sources. For example, The Tale of Telsharu opens with a poem, which purports itself to be a selection from the epic poem “Hanu Zan” by Fao Duman, who is, in fact, a fictional character, writing about one of the heroes of the Seventh Empire. I first fell in love with the concept of in-world epigraphs as a teenager reading Dune by Frank Herbert. Each chapter

Revisions have been a roller coaster ride this week. Six days ago, Sam and I discussed a new scene that we felt needed to be added to ShianMai’s storyline. It was a scene that required some research. For two days, I diddled around and did nothing. Then on Saturday I finally went to the library and got what I needed. But didn’t look at the materials until late Sunday, and then I was too tired to do anything. Monday night I left work and gave myself an ultimatum. I literally sp

If I had one piece of advice to give to writers–aspiring or established–it is this. Write every day. Let nothing interfere with this critical habit. There is nothing–I repeat, nothing–more important to a writing career than the consistency of writing every single day. Don’t worry about quality, don’t worry about quantity. You can set standards for yourself if you need to, whatever works for you. But for us all, the most important part is simply the act of consistently writing

I always have to laugh a little when I hear people discuss the solitary art of writing. Talking about writers who holed up in an office/cave/hotel room/cafe/what have you to write their great works. Clearly, in order to publish a book, other people get involved. Sometimes dozens of other people.Writing very quickly turns into a group effort. Yet for me, the group project begins very early on–starting, of course, with Sam, and often his wife Ashley. Working with a coauthor nat

I had a vision. This morning, as I was lying in bed trying to avoid the necessity of getting up and starting my day, I was thinking about this new project that Sam and I have started working on. In the midst of these rather scattered thoughts, I had a sudden vision. I saw a scene. It was little more than a quick series of images. Vibrant, detailed, incredibly powerful images, packed with emotion, too. This morning, I sat down and wrote out the scene as I saw it. I doubt very

I have never been a big TV watcher. I still never watch TV shows on TV, but rather I watch shows on DVD, a season at a time (when I watch at all). Normally I keep myself too busy to invest much, but seeing as how I’ve been wrapped up in Black Belt Testing madness, by the end of the day my brainpower is spent and all I want to do is veg for an hour before crashing. So I’ve given in to an addiction to NCIS (I’m currently in Season 4). Surprisingly, it’s got me thinking about my

I believe that most writers use music (or sound) which to some extent influences the writing process. Some experience this more strongly than others. For instance, Stephanie Meyer made a point of releasing her playlists after each of her books came together. Her choices even influenced the soundtracks of the films. I find that the music I listen to while I write becomes the soundtrack of the book, in my head. Sam and I have done this with the projects we have worked on togeth

One of the most common questions we get is something like this: “How does it work, having a co-author?” Writing is different for everyone. This is true of individual writers, but probably even more true for collaborative teams. Not only do you have a single writer’s process (some might say insanity) to deal with, but now you have two minds trying to work together. The multiple personalities of the author are not only on the inside any more! This is what the process is like fo

Fortune shone upon us this week. We had a lucky overlap of my Spring Break (the future ninjas are out of school, which means no classes at the studio!) and Sam’s study days, which created almost two full days that we dedicated to writing purposes. We almost never have this kind of time, so we both were very excited to get to work on some upcoming projects. Brainstorming for us is an essential part of our creative process. It’s organic. Our editor once called it kinetic. We fe