Some of the more popular posts on this site are those that discuss how I regrew a lot of my hair by massaging my scalp for two twenty minute sessions a day, twice a day, for eight months. I started the experiment in June 2014, over five years ago, and first wrote about it in April of 2015. For me, daily scalp massage was an effective natural hair regrowth method.
99 cents today only (Kindle version)
Science fiction deal seekers, today is your day. My debut, four-star-reviewed novel The Sky Woman is available on amazon and elsewhere for 99 cents. Yep, less than a buck. Grab it here (Kindle version). For you whale readers, it’s Book 1 of the Reclaimed Earth series (Book 2 is out next month, and I’m outlining Book 3).
Tim Ferriss recently interviewed Charles Koch on his podcast. At first I found it difficult to reconcile the obviously principled, kindly man, a person concerned with the state of the world and hoping to contribute as much as he can, with some of his deeds, which include:
- Waging an expensive campaign against the minimum wage
- Railing against sustainable energy sources and casting doubt on the science of climate change as late as 2016
- Running companies that skirt environmental regulations and pollute the environment with vast amounts of toxic waste
- Stealing vast amounts of oil from Native Americans
- Buying political influence to dismantle regulations on behalf of Koch Industries
Spencer Ellsworth generously volunteered his time as my SFWA mentor and taught me a thing or two about the publishing business. Like me, he’s a fan of Octavia Butler. Unlike me, he’s writing from 4:45am to 6:45am, hours in which I prefer to be soundly asleep.
Word Craft is a deep dive into writers’ methods and practices. Please welcome Spencer Ellsworth, author of The Great Faerie Strike (just released on Aug. 5th) as well as The Starfire Trilogy.
-J.D.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to become a writer.
A little bit… Well, I sometimes dream of climbing on a war mammoth and forging a path northward, where the sky lights up from the battles of the gods. That good?
Seriously, I’m one of those who always wrote. I made picture books before I could string sentences together. I have a vague memory of working on an Ewok story at age 5, sitting in church with my family penning an epic sequel to that unappreciated cinematic gem The Battle For Endor.
For the past few months I’ve used Duotrope to track my fiction submissions to various markets. Previously I was using Google Sheets, with different sections of one large spreadsheet to track stories and submissions, markets, and responses. The sheet worked great for a long time, but once I had over twenty stories, hundreds of responses from publishers, and dozens of markets to track, the spreadsheet solution became unwieldy. I started to miss things, and in one cases submitted a story twice to the same publisher. I also started to submit fewer stories, simply because of the difficulty in using the spreadsheet. Time for a new solution!