Announcing the 2012 World's End Writers' Retreat

If you're like me, you struggle to find time to write. With all the distractions of modern life -- traffic, dirty dishes, bourbon, the constant threat of lawsuits -- it's difficult to find time to focus on your work in progress. Some days you're lucky if you get a chance to sit down at the word processor at all.

Today I present the solution -- the first annual World's End Writers' Workshop and Retreat. Tentatively scheduled for June 7-15, 2012, at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, this retreat offers all the benefits of a secluded work environment, including, but not limited to:

-Absolute silence
-Twenty-four hours of daylight every day
-Scenic vistas in which to ponder the existential despair unique to the human experience
-Possible attack by shape-shifting alien

Not to mention, you'll be able to benefit from the wisdom and experience of our guest authors, celebrities and bestselling writers all (names to come).

So don't let this opportunity pass you by. Stay tuned here for details as they emerge. Exciting!

Blue Pencil Days

You know what's actually getting more fun?

Editing.

I used to hate it. Getting a manuscript back with notes -- especially the big structural and conceptual suggestions and recommendations -- always had a huge gut-punch factor for me. Let's be honest, every writer starts out wanting to send in something perfect and pristine the first time around, to get it back with nothing but a big red lollipop taped the front and a note: BRILLIANT, YOU GENIUS -- DON'T YOU DARE CHANGE A WORD!

Of course this almost never happens. I mean, ideally you don't turn in some crippled, whimpering thing that requires what Hollywood calls a page-one rewrite (I've almost done that on occasion, most recently with No Doors, No Windows, and it can be taxing) but at the same time, you have to anticipate that wiser and more objective eyes than yours are going to find opportunities to improve your work.

A huge part of this has to do with how good your editors are. Right now I'm fortunate enough to be working with one of the best in the business, Shelly Shapiro, editor at large for Del Rey Books. Not only does Shelly have an amazing eye for story and character, but she's an expert in the Star Wars universe. As a writer, I feel for her the same sort of reverence and affection that a SWAT team member feels for his or her Kevlar vest. She's the bulletproof shield that protects me from my own ignorance, and on more than one occasion, she's saved my creative life.

Hyperbole, you scoff. How can anyone save anyone's creative life?

Well, I will tell you. Obviously a lot of it has to do with making the book the best it can be -- but I think the other aspect of the process is helping me remember what got me excited about the project in the first place. By asking the right questions about the choices that I've made throughout the first draft, an editor can re-ignite that essential spark that makes the difference between a dynamic, engaging story, and a mere string of words along the page.

And that's why editors rock.

Star Wars: Black Orchid

So if you look on Wookieepedia, you'll see that the title of my forthcoming Star Wars book has been revealed as Star Wars: Black Orchid. It should probably be noted that the image above, while amusing, is not particularly revealing when it comes to what the book is actually about. In fact, it's pretty much useless in that regard.

But it is kind of funny.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that the author of Star Wars: Black Orchid , in addition to having a Supernatural novel coming out in a couple months, has also just finished another novel in the meantime, tentatively titled Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick.

No artwork is currently available.

Advice for Writers (Part 1)

"It was about 6 years ago and I had just quit a twelve year job as a postal clerk and was trying to be a writer. I was terrified and drank more than ever. I was attempting my first novel. I drank a pint of whiskey and two six packs of beer each night while writing. I smoked cheap cigars and typed and drank and listened to classical music on the radio until dawn. I set a goal of ten pages a night but I never knew until the next day how many pages I had written. I’d get up in the morning, vomit, then walk to the front room and look on the couch to see how many pages were there. I always exceeded my ten. Sometimes there were 17, 18, 23, 25 pages. Of course, the work of each night had to be cleaned up or thrown away. It took me twenty-one nights to write my first novel."

--Charles Bukowski, Women

Jack Frost

This past weekend, my part of the world got slammed with a truly ridiculous amount of white powder...no, Scarface, the other white powder. It all happened over the course of about twelve hours on Friday night and Saturday morning, and by midday Saturday we were wading around through a foot and a half of snow.

Fortunately for me, there was some blended Canadian whiskey in the house, and plenty of writing to be done. As the photo above shows, the combination of liquor and prose was highly successful, and the prospect of more snow in the next two days guarantees more work and less play.

Redrum...