Well, I was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas and baked in Arizona, so I’m pretty well done.
For a time, I wrote under five personas and several pseudonyms, but I take a pill for that now and write only under my own name. Mostly.
I am a prolific professional fiction writer by pretty much any standard. In just over 9 years I’ve written over 120 novels, 10 novellas, and well over 300 short stories across several genres.
I’ve also compiled around 30 short story collections and several lauded, major-prize-nominated poetry collections and nonfiction books on the craft of writing. That is in addition to thousands of articles, essays and blog posts.
I follow Robert A. Heinlein’s Business Habits for Writers (click the link to get your own free PDF copy), better known as Heinlein’s Rules. I follow them as they were written, albeit updated for the 21st century.
Following Heinlein’s Rules is extremely difficult, but if you manage to follow them, you will succeed as a fiction writer.
I love writing fiction to convey the exciting stories that my characters, not I, are living, and I love paying it forward, passing along to other writers what I know about the craft. I do most of that free of charge.
I also enjoy the freedom of (and teach) a technique called Writing Into the Dark, which I learned from professional writer Dean Wesley Smith (see the blog roll), which he learned from his mentor, Algis Budrys.
WITD basically means allowing the characters to tell the story through your fingers on the keyboard. Seems only right. After all, the characters, not the writer, are actually living the story.
Being confident in yourself and your creative subconscious and Writing Into the Dark makes following Heinlein’s Rules a great deal easier. It also makes writing and storytelling the most fun I’ve ever had.
My titles are available in every ebook format in over 400 markets and 1200 libraries worldwide. Several of my longer works also are available in trade paperback editions at Amazon. But frankly, I recommend buying at my online discount store, StoneThread Publishing. There’s a pretty good discount if you go that way.
Some of my short fiction and maybe one novel still appears under one name or another of my various personas. They refused to let go. Hence, you can find those under both my name and under the name of Gervasio Arrancado or Eric Stringer or Nicolas Z Porter.
I miss and envy my former personas. I envy
- Gervasio Arrancado for his rich cultural heritage and his wealth of friends and good acquaintances,
- Eric Stringer for his frenetic frenzy, and
- Nick Porter for his attitude and his plethora of adventurous experiences.
I still visit with my personas on occasion, and sometimes they still help me write. I am appreciative. After all, there are writers starving in China. Or something.
Oh, the ball cap….
I was never a POW. However, I did serve a lengthy stint in the United States Marine Corps, and I do strongly support those who were or are POWs. That’s the story on the ball cap.
