Moonless Wasteland

Considering brushing off this tumblr after talking to @cawolters last week about flash fiction and other stuff. Not making any promises, but we’ll see.

Anyway, I’ve been a published author for a year now, and I’m celebrating with a giveaway on my Instagram account if anyone is into that kind of thing:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8odFmgAvs4/?igshid=8a05dih40vvy

The Release: We Lost the Sky

You know what day it is? It’s my book’s birthday!

I can’t tell you how happy and excited I am to finally be able to let WE LOST THE SKY loose.

Being a published author has been my dream since I was a kid and now … now it’s happening. Nate and Shaunn at Spaceboy Books have given my debut novel the best home I could hope for on board their awesome spaceship.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you…

First of all, sorry for getting that song stuck in your head!

But it really is the final countdown. WE LOST THE SKY will be released on February 28th, and the preorder period has begun.

Before I shove links at you, though, please allow me to share the official book trailer:

https://videopress.com/embed/w8JKNxwm?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

Excited? I hope you are. I know I am!

So where can…

Gift Ideas for the Writer in Your Life

The holiday season is upon us. But really, this list of gift ideas can be used at any time of the year. And I can guarantee that the writer in your life will appreciate these gifts.

I imagine the list you are expecting includes objects like fancy notebooks (and honestly, I’ve yet to meet a writer who doesn’t like notebooks), new pens or badges, mugs or t-shirts with “I’m a Writer!” printed on…

My love affair with science fiction (part four)

Welcome to the fourth and final instalment of this blog series!

Where we we … Oh yes. I didn’t just write that one science fiction story about Captain Hard although it’s the one that made the funniest anecdote. During my middle and late teen years, I was on a healthy diet of Lost in Space reruns, more Star Trekand books by Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke amongst others. My own tales included…

My love affair with science fiction (part 3)

Let’s go down memory lane and revisit my childhood’s hometown (again) and talk about the disconcerting lack of interest people around me showed in science fiction.

I think my school was a little on the unimaginative side. Everything we read in class was some kind of social realism, and while there is a lot to be said for that, treating all kinds of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction…

I was 11 when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I’d written stories before, most of which had fantastical elements. One had to do with a time machine. Another was about a couple of kids who travelled to a parallel world by magic.

By the time I turned 11, I had raided the local library for non-fiction books about space. I especially remember a book series for kids which introduced me to black holes…

If you’ve read any of my stories before, you might think science fiction is a sudden shift from my normal focus (fantasy in all its high, low and urban capacities). But I’ve always had a fascination with science fiction, and it’s how I began to tell stories in the first place. Come on. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane. This is going to be a series of posts, and it will include a story I’ve be…

I’ve got news. Big news. Probably the biggest news I’ve ever shared with you.

In December, I finished writing a novel that I’d been working on determinedly for a while. A few months later, I had edited it and gathered comments from my trusted beta readers and was ready to start querying. And now … well, I think you’ve guessed where this is headed, but let me say it anyway, okay?

I have a…

From: M. Howalt To: The Internet (ATTN: Blogosphere) Subject: On being a writer with PCS Dear Internet, I’m sorry for leaving you so suddenly and without much of an explanation. I know it made me seem flaky and may even have worried some, so I’d like to tell you a little bit about what happened and what I plan to do now. In September 2015, I suffered a “minor” injury, a concussion to be specific.…

This month is Camp NaNoWriMo, the April writing challenge. Unlike NaNoWriMo in November, you can set your own word count goal and keep track of that on the site, and you get to join a virtual cabin of other writers. This time I’m in a cabin with some of my JukePop pals which is super cool. It’s a bit like a virtual writing group. I’m working on a novel that takes place in the world of my…

5 Books That Shaped Me: Teen Reads

I did say I would make it a series, didn’t I? Here’s the second post about books that shaped me. (The first one was about childhood memories.) It’s terribly difficult to choose just five for this post because I read a lot as a teenager. I would devour anything that looked interesting (and sometimes books that didn’t as well) in the local library and it’s a period during which I (like all…

Ready for a new serial? Focal Point is here!

If you’re a regular here, you’ll know that I’ve muttered something about launching a new serial novel on JukePop for a few months. Guess what! It’s finally here! My new serial is called Focal Point. I actually wrote the first draft years ago and have been wanting to do something more with it. It’s a bit different from anything else you might have read by me so far, and I’m pretty excited about…

(via The Witch)

5 Books That Shaped Me: Childhood Memories

I am going to start a small series of posts about books that changed, shaped or otherwise have had a big impact on me as a writer or as a person. Each of these posts will feature five books that played a role in a certain period of my life. The first post is about five books that I read as a child. Here they are: I could easily include a lot more books because I loved being read to and (when I…