R.K. MacPherson's Blog, page 2

Making Progress

Some messages don’t need translating.

I find myself with less than two months in Japan, which means I’m working onApotheosis in much of my spare time. I’m not wholly sold on my initial starting point, but since it’s very difficult to edit a blank page, I forged ahead and threw some words down.

Then it hit me! And I got angry and hit it back. We had words. It ended up all right, though. We hugged it out over some orange Jell-O.

Seriously, though, it’s okay to hit a roadblock, but don’t let that d...

Liebster Award

I’m totally famous.

I won! I think.

Simplyme nominated me and tasked me with a number of things, which will culminate in a finger-biting party near Mt. Doom and the end of all things. Annie Lennox will sing. It’s gonna be awesome.

My eleven questions are:

1. What is the number one reason you started your blog?

I wanted to make people laugh so they would love me and/or buy my books. I’m still single and poor so I’m not sure that I succeeded.

2. What is a name you hate based on a bad grade school exp...

Gender Does Matter

Brace yourselves…lens flares are coming.

Most geeks have a place in their heart for Star Wars. It’s a huge universe that has provided thousands of hours of videos, books, and games to enjoy. Most of it was super cool. Some of it was kinda Jar Jar. When the news came that a new trilogy would be produced, many people–myself included–felt, ahem, a new hope.

When the new cast was announced today, one thing jumped out at me right away–there was only one new woman. Okay, there’s one more role to be c...

ABC – Always Be Writing

A few years ago, I worked with a really great writer named Dave Noonan, who introduced me to David Mamet andGlengarry Glen Ross through a pep talk, where he exhorted us to “Always Be Writing!” When I scratched my pate and pointed out that writing didn’t start with a C (I wasn’t the sharpest flake of obsidian), he ran with it and said, “We don’t have time to make our acronyms match!”

Dave taught me a lot about writing, and so I’ve made an effort over the years toalways be writing. If I get bloc...

Research Tools For Writers

A friend once asked me what my favorite part of being a writer was and I surprised him when I said it was the research that led up to the writing. It’s not the actual storytelling that I love. Ineedto tell the story, but I also need to let the voices out of my head. I mean, write down those thoughts.

Never mind.

Anyway, new writers often misjudge how much research theycando. If you think your information access is limited to Google search and Wikipedia, think again. Many of these sources are fr...

Settings As Characters

Part of an author’s job is to transport readers to new locales–or offer a new perspective on a locale with which they’re familiar. Lots of little details can add a lot of authenticity to a story…or they can bore the crap out of a reader. My friend Dave loves rich settings, but loathes exposition and cascading streams of adjectives. A dash of flavor works wonders.

InApotheosis, everyone’s favorite hoodie-wearing vortex of chaos arrives in Japan. Not only is it her first time out of the US, but...

Struggles and Breakthroughs

R. K. MacPherson:

Writers often feel like they have to perform on demand. That they must be Dashiell Hammett at all times or they aren’t a writer. Worse, as happened to me, they tried to make being a writer a core component of their identity.

That isn’t sustainable for most people and what happens if it fails? If you don’t write, are you not you?

Read this excellent post by Julie and see if you can identify with the struggles she describes. I certainly could.

Originally posted on Word Flows:

It’s...

Writing Perspective

One of the hardest things for me to master as a writer is the voice in which the work is written. I wrote my first fabulously unpublishable piles of detritus in third person, which seemed to be the default for everything I’d read up until then.

Antigone’s Fall was written from the first person perspective. It was a thriller trying to be a mystery, so the intimate immediacy of first person appealed to me. I offered me a way to expound on my character’s thoughts and processes without having to m...

Assassins – R.K MacPherson

R. K. MacPherson:

Here’s the review for Assassins I teased last week. I didn’t know how it would turn out, so I chewed on my nails until ouch!

But here’s the review! Pretty sweet!

Originally posted on The Review Hart:

Title:

Assassins: (Book two of the

Stormcaller Cycle

series).

View original

Notable Firsts

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“It never snows in Kainan. Tennis shoes are fine.”

It’s been awhile since I last updated things. A few things are afoot and a few things are keeping me occupied. Work onApotheosis goes slow, mostly because I’m still wrapping up some plotlines in my head. I’m not certain how much story is needed.

Shockingly, I’m not certain who lives and who dies.

Much like these palms. They’re really confused.

The Review Hart is reviewingAssassinson February 17th. I’m a bit nervous, but also really stoked. This i...