Author Archives: dan

I start reading a lot of books. I finish, maybe, a quarter of them. Occassionally I will delete a book from my kindle with a growl of disgust, wishing that I lived with the primitive people of the 20th century, … Continue reading →

06 Writing Promotion Strategies2 Go to conventions and writing workshops, and even contests to meet people. The more specialized a social network is, the better. Some good ones are: Goodreads Deviantart Consider the motivation of the other people on a … Continue reading →

What makes readers keep reading? Is it action, romance, humor, all of those, or none of them? SF author Daniel M. Bensen and Kalin Nenov, editor at the Human Library, will talk about what makes books fun, why fun is … Continue reading →

Just a little fun from here: The very helpful lamna said “And the plural of triceratops is triceratops. Like the plural of sheep is sheep.” Is it really? The Anglo-saxons did not know about triceratopses and did not include that … Continue reading →

05 Writing Promotion Strategies1 This is part one of a long (3 part) conversation I had with Kalin Nenov of the Human Library on the subject of promotion strategies for books. We talk about: Getting outside people involved (for example, … Continue reading →

No, this isn’t a blog devoted to how awesome Aaron Diaz is (although he deserves one >sigh<). This is where I think about alien technology. As Arthur C. Clark famously said and the Strugatsky brothers demonstrated so well, any sufficiently … Continue reading →

04 Literary agents In this podcast, I talk with Kalin Nenov of the Human Library about Literary agents. What agents are and what they do. Writer’s water-cooler. (where you can talk with other writers about agents and other things) Duotrope … Continue reading →

This is the handout I’ve prepared for the writing workshop today. Have I missed anything? RULES FOR WRITING Omit needless words Write transparently Show don’t tell   Therefore avoid these words in narrative: Adverbs (usually end in -ly) BE verbs … Continue reading →

03 Reading3 The people: Paul Jenkins, Pavlina Borisova-Bensen, Daniel M. Bensen The Menu: Duck on a bed of wheat, hot apple cider, and “The Wrath of Khan” The purpose: to read through the next chapter of Dan’s new book, and … Continue reading →