Yes, for many years I earned most of my income as a freelance computer journalist and/or a technical author.
These past 20 years I haven't needed to do work-for-hire, but while I prefer to do my own thing I *can* write to order.
Looking for artist recommendations for a character portrait/bust of a half-goblin, half-halfling character in my cozy fantasy series.
Image will be used as website/marketing art and made into a sticker.
Would love to find an artist that I can work with for future images of this same character.
As far as I know my fiction hasn't been plagiarized, but my nonfic has several times. More than once I've found a blog post or article or section of one of my books on someone's website, used to promote their therapy or wellness clinic or whatever.
Sometimes they even credited me while stealing my work!
A few times I reached out and said 'what the hell' but I never got a response. Eventually I kinda shrugged and moved on. Still irked by it.
#WritersCoffeeClub August 29: Talk about an experience you've had with plagiarism.
The most pernicious in recent memory: a couple of weeks after "A Conventional Boy" came out this past January, some bastard began selling it in online bookstores at half price, using a lookalike unicode glyph in the author name so it looked like me but was linked to their own bank account—with a big 50% OFF SALE medallion on the cover image.
My trad publishers have anti-piracy departments to deal with that shit.
Looking for artist recommendations for a character portrait/bust of a half-goblin, half-halfling character in my cozy fantasy series.
Image will be used as website/marketing art and made into a sticker.
Would love to find an artist that I can work with for future images of this same character.
I think it has to be the reader who bought several copies of my first book, kept one on his desk (apparently it had quite a following in the Rochester NY Border Patrol office) and sent a copy to a friend in Finland.
I got to know him quite well. He asked me to write him into the second book (neglecting to mention that he had the same name as a well-known rapper, sorry for any confusion). My book was supposed to be one-and-done, but thanks to Curtis, I continued writing.
I think it has to be the reader who bought several copies of my first book, kept one on his desk (apparently it had quite a following in the Rochester NY Border Patrol office) and sent a copy to a friend in Finland.
I got to know him quite well. He asked me to write him into the second book (neglecting to mention that he had the same name as a well-known rapper, sorry for any confusion). My book was supposed to be one-and-done, but thanks to Curtis, I continued writing.
Authors have fragile egos—myself included: I attribute it to the insanely long feedback loop between writing a book and finding out if people actually *like* it (a proxy for quality, because we mostly can't evaluate whether our own work is any good objectively). So I try not to put much stock in effusive praise.
(On the other hand, winning three Hugo awards gave me a big head.)
I treat my writing with the utmost sense of tradition!
I show up on time, dressed in my Sunday best at my computer. I graciously introduce myself to the source material and ask permission to take the writing out for a first draft.
And above all, I wait at least until the 3rd chapter before I even think about writing the characters into bed.
Call me old fashioned, but I can't abide these fast and loose flings of modern society.
I write mostly formal poetry, especially sonnets, which have a rich tradition in the history of English poetry. I also enjoy haiku and tanka, which are traditional Japanese forms.
As far as my fiction writing, I think people might say it's old-fashioned, but not necessarily traditional. I suppose I'm in the tradition of science fantasy, which had its heyday in the 60s or so.
How traditional is your writing? Which tradition?
Like my art, it’s a mix: at first it seems traditional, depicting the Victorian era with the shades of gray and crosshatches in vintage brushes.
But this result is created through digital tools and the topics addressed are more modern.
That’s exactly the result I wanted, catch the reader’s attention with a promise and then subtly insinuate something slightly different.
#writerscoffeeclub 2025-08-27
I treat my writing with the utmost sense of tradition!
I show up on time, dressed in my Sunday best at my computer. I graciously introduce myself to the source material and ask permission to take the writing out for a first draft.
And above all, I wait at least until the 3rd chapter before I even think about writing the characters into bed.
Call me old fashioned, but I can't abide these fast and loose flings of modern society.
I have no idea what this question even means in the context of my fiction.
Not very! I prefer to write in past tense, and I think that's probably the only 'traditional' part of my writing. I don't use traditional characters, my plot type is my own invention, and my work doesn't fit neatly into any single genre.
As far as 'which' tradition, I'd say my work grew out of and in opposition to English literary traditions from the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Well, I'm Dutch, Dyslexic, Neurospicy, and far too fond of an antiquated lexicon, so not very. But for all traditionalists, the most irksome aspect in my writing is that it is present tense!
I might dress up as present tense writing for Halloween this year.
Well, I'm Dutch, Dyslexic, Neurospicy, and far too fond of an antiquated lexicon, so not very. But for all traditionalists, the most irksome aspect in my writing is that it is present tense!
I might dress up as present tense writing for Halloween this year.
I write mostly formal poetry, especially sonnets, which have a rich tradition in the history of English poetry. I also enjoy haiku and tanka, which are traditional Japanese forms.
As far as my fiction writing, I think people might say it's old-fashioned, but not necessarily traditional. I suppose I'm in the tradition of science fantasy, which had its heyday in the 60s or so.
How traditional is your writing? Which tradition?
Like my art, it’s a mix: at first it seems traditional, depicting the Victorian era with the shades of gray and crosshatches in vintage brushes.
But this result is created through digital tools and the topics addressed are more modern.
That’s exactly the result I wanted, catch the reader’s attention with a promise and then subtly insinuate something slightly different.
#writerscoffeeclub 2025-08-27
There was this period from about 2003 through 2014 when I was writing a novel a year for each of Ace (part of Penguin) and Tor (part of Macmillan). Totally different orgs and pub dates were skewed by about 6 months.
So why did I regularly get sent copy edits and page proofs to check for both publishers SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE SAME DEADLINE?
(I'm certain they were conspiring to stress me out!)
There was this period from about 2003 through 2014 when I was writing a novel a year for each of Ace (part of Penguin) and Tor (part of Macmillan). Totally different orgs and pub dates were skewed by about 6 months.
So why did I regularly get sent copy edits and page proofs to check for both publishers SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE SAME DEADLINE?
(I'm certain they were conspiring to stress me out!)
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