If you've been living under a rock and haven't read The Hunger Games yet, I'll make this review simple: It's excellent, FOUR STARS. The Hunger Games is populist fare without question, the kind of book anyone can get hooked by, even people who prefer video games. But even literary buffs can get excited by this: pure... Continue Reading →

I think I may have written this book in a past life. So much of A Princess of Mars reminds me of my 2004 novel, The Dark Age of Enya, I feel that I must be the reincarnation of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It has everything I love about fantasy: exotic locations, weird creatures, feats of derring-do,... Continue Reading →

Forward: I write fantasy because of Masters of the Universe. In 1981, when I spotted the He-Man action figure in the toy store, my life changed forever. I adored the detail of the sculpt, a rarity in those days, but it was the mini-comic the toy came with that sealed my love for all things... Continue Reading →

In anticipation for the upcoming John Carter film, I decided to pick up Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, the first of eleven books in the John Carter series. During my research, I was completely floored to learn about the character of Dejah Thoris. Burroughs describes her this way, John Carter and Dejah Thoris... Continue Reading →

With a title like Never Knew Another, I imagined life deep in the woods, far from other human beings. It's amazing what another writer can imagine when looking at a book cover---and how different the actual story turns out to be. Never Knew Another by J.M. McDermott reads like a noir crime thriller set in inner city Chicago. But... Continue Reading →

Here are some submission guidelines, straight from the Writer's Market 2012. I only wish I was making these up!Don't do what we do, do what we say."We are being inundated with queries and submissions that are wrongfully being submitted to us, which only results in more frustrated for the writers." (That's not the only thing... Continue Reading →

I always dress in my 18th century formal attire when I write.How-To Write Fiction? Advice is everywhere, from books to magazines to the Internet. Most of this advice focuses on plot, character development, and style. If you're an aspiring writer, you've probably gone over these before. But while I can't argue that plot or character isn't... Continue Reading →

Forward: When I was eighteen, my sister and I visited the famous Byzantine castle in the Taygetos Mountains in Sparta (my parents hometown). Along the way, we passed through a monastery and met a nun who offered us a disgusting mix of water and orange powder. What I found peculiar about the nun was that she had... Continue Reading →