Cameron Lowe's Blog, page 13

Revising On Hallowed Lanes

I’m sorry to say that as it stands, On Hallowed Lanes just isn’t good enough to share. The travelogue and central plot are good, but the other half of the backbone and a great deal of problems surrounding one of the main characters just feel juvenile and half-assed in a way that can’t be fixed in edits.   I won’t push mediocre work. I just won’t. Business-wise it would make more sense to have three novels out this year rather than two, but not if that comes with the cost of releasing som...

A tidbit from Forever and Farewell

Here’s a little unedited taste of a special romance novel I’m working on. Enjoy!

The Real Bad Day, as Lauren thought of it later, came in early October.

Once upon a time, she loved the fall. Loved the leaves as they slipped into their golden moments, then falling like soft rain, caressing and tickling her skin under the arms of old and wise silent things.

She loved Halloween as a teenager and the joy of giving treats to wildly exuberant kids, She loved dressing up, loved costumes and being so...

A Taste of On Hallowed Lanes

Warning – here there be spoilers for both Bone Carvers and Band of Fallen Princes. Turn back now, lest you scald your virgin eyes. Still hanging around? Good. Here’s a rough chapter from On Hallowed Lanes. Late in the story, this one doesn’t deal with a lot of plot-heavy stuff, but is a good slice of what you’ll find the book to be about, roughly in terms of its travelogue style (though I want to flesh out the Jasper National Park bits in edits) and what to expect from its main characters. En...

Legally Blind #13 – Driving Again (Sorta)

Ever since I went legally blind, I have to be choosy about the games I play. With modern HD televisions and gaming graphics came an unfortunate byproduct – fonts so tiny that they’re completely unreadable by me. While developers are slowly learning how to implement things like “color blind modes,” there’s still no great solution to the font size problem, even nearly a decade after it first started to crop its ugly head. Even then, the “color blind” name is a misnomer, since there are wildly d...

Legally Blind #12 – The Hunchback of White Sulphur

I’m not staring at your boobs.

Well… yeah, okay, I kind of am, but it’s not on purpose. Please don’t slap me. It’s a disease, and not some sexually perverse one. It’s called ankylosing spondylitis.

Before you ask, no, it’s not really tied to my eyes at all, but my diagnosis did actually come about as a result to a visit with my amazing eye specialist Dr. Patricia Cosgrove (who will warrant an entire blog dedicated to her and the fine folks at Medical Eye Specialists in Bozeman, MT, with whom...

Writing fight scenes

One of the best tips I can give you budding writers is that when you have to write a fight scene, blow it out in your first draft. Go nuts with everything and everything you possibly want out of it, then scale it back to what you actually need afterwards. It’s way easier to craft a fun, intense fight scene that way, whereas when you have to pad it out, it tends to read like that’s what you’ve done.   I’ve had some trouble writing gunfights as opposed to fist fights. The former just don’t...

Legally Blind #11 – Colorado Addendum

My friend and co-conspirator on the Rankin Flats novels Erik Wehler just reminded me in an offhanded fashion that I completely forgot to talk about my experiences with some of the more odd classes I took at the Colorado Center for the Blind.

I’m not good with tools. Never have been, never will be. I’m not going to excuse myself by saying “I’m just not wired that way” because, c’mon, everybody can grab a hammer and throw in a nail. Except… not really. I try it, and I guarantee you that nail’s...

Life is Weird

Eight years ago to this day, I lost my job.

That’s nearly a decade of days spent staring at a computer screen. Watching television. Playing games. Saying stupid shit on the Internet. Walking my dog(s).

It’s also nearly a decade of self-loathing, of pity parties, of anger, of mild paranoia. It’s nearly a decade of trying to get over my newfound distrust of people. It’s a decade of a lake of loneliness, the life preserver of which has been twenty five pounds of fur and farts (and my family).

Bu...

Legally Blind #10 – A Sea of Familiarity

I don’t recognize you.

I don’t know your face. I don’t know your clothes. I don’t know your vehicle. I don’t know the way you walk.

I’m sorry about that, I really am. And if you know me, you’re probably thinking, “Oh, Cam means someone else.” No. I’m sorry, but no. I’m not. It doesn’t matter if we’ve been best friends for decades. It doesn’t matter if you’re my parents. It doesn’t even matter if you’re my brother, the person I’m closest to in the universe.

I do not recognize you.

One of the q...

Band of Fallen Princes is now available on paperback!

Heya folks! You can now get your copy of Band of Fallen Princes on paperback on Amazon, and lemme tell you, that cover looks absolutely gorgeous physically. Also digitally. Hey, it’s just a great cover all around.

Here’s the link! For you!