Words Deferred is a blog about writing fiction, in all of its myriad forms.
It’s 2025, and I’m reviewing books and giving away my story ideas!
2024 was my Year of Short Stories. I spent 52 weeks writing sci-fi and fantasy stories and submitting them to publications. I wrote weekly updates to discuss my progress, as well as the ins and outs of writing and submitting short fiction in these markets. Read the kickoff, or see all the posts.
Previously, I spent almost two years writing Razor Mountain, a novel that I updated here twice per month. I documented the entire process, from ideas and outlining to the cover design and back-cover blurb to the chapters themselves. You can read all of it on my Razor Mountain landing page.
If you’d rather read some of my free microfiction or hundred-word drabbles, check out the Fiction section.
If you’re looking for something else, use the search, categories and tags in the sidebar, or check out my most recent posts below.
Hyperion — Read Report
Book | E-book (affiliate links) Reading the four-part Ender’s saga left me feeling skeptical of big, philosophical, late-80s sci-fi books. Now I’m going back to that well with Hyperion. I’ll be honest, Hyperion feels clever and stylish after Children of the Mind. Then again, Ender’s Game was the first and…
Week 6 — Year of Short Stories 2026
2026 is another year of short stories. In this weekly series, I talk about short story writing, from idea and draft to submission. This is week six: Feb. 8 – Feb. 15 Stats Goals and Results My goals from last week were: Although I’ve been generally keeping up with my…
Making Monsters: Nightmare Creatures for Horror Stories
As a speculative fiction writer, I tend to stay in the zones of sci-fi and fantasy. I don’t go across the tracks to horrorville very often. However, I’m currently writing a horror story featuring a monster who appears human. That got me thinking about monsters and how to write them…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Words Deferred 