That’s not news. I’m always frustrated and annoyed. It’s the reason I get up in the morning. But I’m at least 50% more frustrated and 65% more annoyed over the past couple of weeks. We are, as you may have noticed, living through a pandemic. And by *we* I mean every fucking one of us, …
For those of you paying even the slightest bit of attention to world events, we had some bushfires in Australia recently. Like in half the fucking country — or at least half the country that had fuel — was on fire. Got sort of close to us, but as I told the kids, there were …
Like hell. (I should be working on my book.) On January 2nd I marched into my local physical fitness centre, pushed past the throngs of guilt-wracked folks looking to tone their arms or gut or quads or whatever, and cancelled my gym membership. Kinda took the poor lady at the counter by surprise. I was …
I should be writing my book. But I spent three hours plotting the final act this morning and that’s enough for today. Plus, it’s too hot to think, the laptop is toasting my nuts and my arms are sweating on the keyboard. Generally uncomfortable. I’ll be sleeping in the buff tonight, on top of the …
About a decade ago (very late 2009, early 2010) I started tearing apart the first draft of my first book, restructuring it into something more resembling a three-act structure. That September (2010), I put it up on Smashwords (and KDP about six months later) and I was “published”. That book — Matt’s War — is …
I bang on this a lot, and if the truth be told, this is only a minor component of a good story, but one most often missing. Stories have a structure. Generally, three acts. There are other structures, but they all resolve, in one way or another, to three acts. There are certain things a …
McGinnis Investigations has been operating a small but successful shop in Campbelltown, an hour south of Sydney, Australia for over a decade. Business has been what you’d expect in a sort of rough town in a sort of rough country, with an ever increasing circle of rough and tumble clients spreading the word that Dan …
A nimrod managed to gain access to my website and trashed it. It was at such a state, and the compromise so deep, it was easier to clear everything out. So everything has been cleared out. I’m looking at this as a positive. I was tired of the layout and this is as good a …