Enoching at the door
9/9/2026
Here to announce the upcoming sequel to My Blood Is Fire is coming in late 2027.
The manuscript is tentatively named After Calamity, and will take place in 2024, six years after the events of the first book.
“Thank you for your attention in this matter.”
Enoching at the door
9/7/2026
Hello!
Today I’ll be focusing on a few tips to get you on your way to being a writer. Hopefully anyone reading this will find it useful, as I had to do a lot of this stuff on my own initially. Took many years to get into my own groove, so hopefully I can help you get there faster…because from start to finish, My Blood is Fire took about Eight years to write, edit, and publish. So my first order of business is to help you save some time with your manuscript. The editing, and publishing process is what it is, but you can certainly complete a book in less time than I did. Here’s the top Eleven things you should be doing as a writer.
#11 Write a story first. Social commentary is important, but if the message is ham-fisted, or the obvious and only focus, you will fail to create a compelling narrative. We are here to entertain people, and sometimes say something. If you fail at making good characters, action, plot, the commentary will fall flat. A good example of a show that had excellent commentary, and was also entertaining would be The Twilight Zone. Binge those episodes!
#10 Always be doing something to your book. Editing, writing, researching stuff, fixing errors, etc. The worst thing we do as writers is put the manuscript down for months at a time, and then have to start all over! Even with a good outline this is time consuming.
#9 Make outlines. Write down the description of every scene you have in your head, or snippets of conversation between characters. Then write it when you can, but keep a photo of it on your phone. You may well lose stuff permanently without doing this, though I only make outlines when I feel overwhelmed by how much I have to do yet. Crossing off scenes on a list makes one feel as if they’ve accomplished something, that the task is less daunting.
#8 Do the work. Do the homework. If your story has something in it, like a boat, research the hell out of that boat. Know what you’re talking about. There are no shortcuts beyond doing the work, and reader’s are smart. If you phone it in they’ll know. You would.
#7 Believe in yourself. Believe in what you’re working on. If you don’t like it, why should the reader?
#6 Read other people’s work. For fun, and for inspiration. I can’t stress this enough, if you read a lot of fiction it will dramatically improve your own work. Read voraciously. Absorb everything. The world is your classroom, the library a playground.
#5 Body Double. An old trick for ADHD folks, work alongside another person doing a different project. Set up “work dates” and you’ll find that inspiration comes even when scheduled. There’s got to be something on that outline you’ve written to tackle, right?
#4 This is a big one. Take constructive criticism. The book is not your baby. It is not perfect right out of the gate. There are things about it you can fix, make better, or cut out entirely. If you hire an editor, or Agent, listen to their advice. You wouldn’t hire a lawyer, pay them, and then tell them to go pound sand, so don’t do that for your book either. I guarantee even if you’re the next Mark Twain, your manuscript isn’t flawless. Take the criticism. Take the “L” then make your project better. You’ll come back stronger by admitting this early on. Being defensive of your work means it will continue to not make sense to other people.
#3 Own a physical copy of a dictionary and/or a thesaurus, or have access to it from your phone. Like, no one wants to read the same descriptors. Most readers love learning new words. Make sure your dictionary is OLD too, you’ll find words in there you’ve never seen before. Carry a Physical copy of reference material with you. Get a writing folder with paper, and pens in it. They’re pretty cheap at office stores. Even if you’re writing 100% on a laptop or computer, carry the reference materials with you at all times you’ll be working. In my case, I had a physical copy of the Bible (KJV Version) with me always since my book quoted it about a dozen times.
#2 Respect copywrite, and other authors. If you’re working on something that isn’t common domain, make sure to get permission from authors, and cite stuff. The Golden Rule applies here. Do unto others…
#1 And finally…Have Fun. You’re not doing this to make millions, and a Netflix show. You’re doing this because you enjoy it, want other people to be entertained, and maybe learn a thing or two. Don’t lose the joy in this process, as arduous as it can sometimes be. And that’s my top Eleven. See you next week!