A lot of writers will tell you to write every day. It’s one of those things you hear all the time from professionals, teachers—just about everyone. I write every day as well.
Today I wrote a shopping list, a letter to my solicitor, a check to pay my phone bill, and I think that should count.

There is no other job I know of that expects you to work every day. Everyone gets days off, and I think writers should be no exception. Sometimes, you have to let your batteries recharge.

Not long ago, I started getting into 3D computer graphics. It started, quite innocently, with a free copy of Poser, at the time being given away by a site called Content Paradise. A year down the road, I am the proud owner of thousands of dollars worth of software and content, more knowledge about graphics than I ever thought I’d accumulate, and a collection of images that blow my mind every time I look at them.

There is a war on drugs. I’ve seen it on the news. People go to parties and take drugs. The drugs are dangerous. I’ve seen that on the news too. They have all sorts of adverse affects on people, including depression, mood swings, manic episodes, sleep disorder, possibly even death. You have to watch out, because many of these drugs are physically addictive, which means, you start taking them and end up trapped.

Robert Jordan passed away today. He was 58 years old. It was a tragic loss for the fantasy community.

Best known for his bestselling Wheel of Time series, Jordan has a vast fan following.

We at Novelspot wish to offer our sympathies to RJ's family and friends.

You can view Robert Jordan's blog, and read the annoucement of his passing here. http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan

A lot of authors try to sell their books. This might work if they only have one or two in roughly the same genre, but as an author's repertoire grows, it becomes harder and harder to promote that way.

Case in point: Under my real name, I write fantasy and science fiction. I've also written non-fiction. Just taking my fantasy, I've written high fantasy, swords and sorcery, surrealism, slip-stream, short stories, novels, modern humorous fantasy, even fantasy serials. I have books with Double Dragon, Twilight Times, Zumaya and Bucks for a Buck. Selling each book separately would require me to break open my piggy bank (it's really a goblin bank, but don't tell anyone). What's an author to do?

Just recently, I got a job working as an asistant manager in a fish and chips shop in a local mall food court. I know it's not the kind of job you expected me to have, if you indeed had any expectations at all. In fact, it's not the type of job I ever expected to have either. But when the going gets tough, the tough do strange things and necessity makes tough bedfellows, so here I am.

At least I finally figured out why it's called fast food. After seeing the way food is made/treated/handled all I want to do is fast. I'm never going to eat again...well, at least until my next meal.

If you’ve never heard of the holiday Baker’s Dozen you’re in good company. Aside from a handful of acquaintances, only people who have read my previous article, Celebrating the Baker’s Dozen, will have heard of it at all, and most of them won’t remember. I, however, can never forget Baker’s dozen.

Put briefly, Baker’s Dozen is the anniversary of the last day I was in New York City, before a monumental move that took me first cross country, and then to the other side of the world. Both events have been written about in detail elsewhere, so I won’t recount them here. I will, however, tell you how I celebrate Baker’s Dozen.

I once wrote a story to explain where I got my crazy ideas from. It's called A Creative Edge, and can be read here at http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Steve.html

This was the first short story I wrote back in 1998, when I first started to get serious about getting published. All comments are appreciated (both positive and negati

In response to the numerous posts about writing rules on the Novelspotters Yahoo Group, I though it might be appropriate to reproduce here, my ever so popular article Steve's Law's of Writing.

Naturally, I emailed myself and got permission to do so. I hope you enjoy them.

Steve's Law of Submission
After mailing an article or story to a new market, the very next time you look at your copy, you will find an error on the first page.