Heidi Ruby Miller

HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: Elaine Ervin, Russ Howe, Dana Marton, and Mike Mehalek.



Mike Mehalek

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?

2. Tell me about your travels.
Most recently, I spent some time this summer in Colorado. Biked the trails around Colorado Springs, hiked Mount Aspen at what had to be it’s steepest trail, found a geocache at the top of Pike’s Peak (along with about a dozen other finds). It was one of the coolest, most active vacations of my life. The people in each town were awesome and if I had any complaints, it was that I couldn’t have stayed longer.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?

5. Who are you reading right now?
The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King, which is Book Two of the Dark Tower Series. What I’ve found interesting having returned to King after several years since I’ve picked up one of his books was that some people are novelists; some are storytellers. King is a storyteller, and he’s admitted himself that his best work has come from his heart--his gut--not his head. This insight into writing that I initially did not see (perhaps I was simply too stubborn or too dense at the time to understand this) has given me a greater appreciation of his writing, of other great writers’ styles, and even my own.

6. Pop culture or academia?

7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
In my manuscript Dragon

8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?

9. Food you could eat everyday.
Pepperoni Pizza from Pizzeria Regina’s

10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
One of my biggest criticisms I have of myself is that I have no musical talent, and I often joke that I hate musicians because of my shortcoming. The truth of the matter is that I love music that can evoke emotions. Music is the only art that has the capability to connect instantly with an audience. It hits a person’s core with sledgehammer force and laser-guided precision. At the end of the day, my goal as a writer is to mimic the musician, to tug the heartstrings of my readers and to leave them wondering what the heck happened. That’s how I’m left after listening to songs by folks like The Avett Brothers, John Denver, The Killers, Dashboard Confessional, Gomez, Pearl Jam, Ingrid Michaelson, John Williams, Snow Patrol, DMB, Mummford & Sons, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend and dozens and dozens more.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?

13. Celebrity crush.
Betty White

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?

15. Do you still watch cartoons?
About the only one I still make time to watch religiously is the The Venture Bros. It’s the best thing ever!

A friend once told Mike Mehalek that "writing will set you free," and he’s bought into that philosophy 110%. To him writing is a way to escape from reality, a means to earn a living, and a way to show the world that one person can make a difference. He feels fiction should be enjoyable at the surface, but it should also have enough depth that those willing to dive for it can find greater meaning. In 2008 Mike graduated from the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill with his thesis Dragon, an urban dark fantasy. Visit him online at http://mikemehalek.blogspot.com

Mike is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

HEIDI'S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: Elaine Ervin, Russ Howe, Dana Marton, and Mike Mehalek.



Russ Howe

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?

2. Tell me about your travels.
My heart is in Africa. You have to experience it to understand it.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?

5. Who are you reading right now?
The Fall of the West by Goldsworthy. He is taking Roman history to a new level.
6. Pop culture or academia? Academia. There is nothing better to test an idea that intensive academic inquiry and debate.

7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
It has to be political and fast. The Clash, Midnight Oil, Prime Circle, that style.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?

13. Celebrity crush.
Gwen Stefani

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
My lovely wife, Robert Sawyer and Michael Moorcock.

15. Do you still watch cartoons?

Russ Howe is a Canadian barrister and a partner at the law firm of Boland Howe. He is the past president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, a member of the Advocates Society, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. Russ has a specialist degree in History from the University of Toronto. He has tested for and attained the rank of Scholar at the Academy of European Martial Arts where he both trains in and teaches multiple forms of medieval combat techniques, which he has taught as a module at Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. Russ is also a member of the Canadian Heraldry Society.

Russ is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

HEIDI’S PICK SIX
As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: Elaine Ervin, Russ Howe, Dana Marton, and Mike Mehalek.



Elaine Ervin

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
My favorite Jacki King character is Leslie Stetler (from SHE WHO LAUGHS LAST & MARGARITA CHICA)…actually, she’s my favorite character from either pen name. That girl knows how to make lemonade outta lemons every time.

2. Tell me about your travels.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Gourmet tea, baby…hot cinnamon is my fave (it tastes like a melted Atomic Fireball)

4. What else can you do besides write?
I am a voracious cross-stitcher…I can leap tall desserts in a single bound, and I mix a fabulouso margarita that’s more powerful than a locomotive.

5. Who are you reading right now?
I’m reading Maria V. Snyder, Penny Dawn, Janet Evanovich, & Dana Marton.

6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?

9. Food you could eat everyday.
Mmmmmmmmmmm….Mexican!

10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
I love sports of all kinds; not only did I play fastpitch softball for ten years, but I found a beach volleyball league here and am jumping in on that at every opportunity; plus, I FINALLY found a hitting partner for tennis.

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?

After growing up in the middle Tennessee countryside, Elaine Ervin obtained a B.A. at the University of Tennessee, then, in 1998, headed to Southern California to teach and watch Dodger and Raider games.

Shortly after the new Millennium, Cupid lured her to Central Pennsylvania and in 2006, completed her M.A. in Writing at Seton Hill University where she fine-tuned her writing with a focus on women’s fiction and romantic comedy.

Currently, she writes as both Alayne Adams and Jacki King, and writing credits include: In Perfect Harmony and The Not So Simple Life (w/a Alayne Adams) and the anthology Jacki's Jewels (w/a Jacki King). She still lives in Pennsylvania, writes full-time, teaches at the college/university level, and still watches Dodger and Raider games. Learn more at www.AlayneAdams.net and www.ReadJackiKing.com.



Elaine is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

HEIDI'S PICK SIX welcomes the Greater Portland Scribists: Cynthia Ravinski, Lee Patterson, Richard Veysey, and Jamie Belanger.

Here's Richard!



1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
4. What else can you do besides write?
5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?

8.Where do you find your inspirations to write?
My inspirations usually come to me at really random times, like when I'm mowing the lawn, in the shower, or sitting on the toilet. Sometimes it'll be a scene that pops into my head that I think would be really cool. Other times, a line will pop into my head, and I'll build a story around that line. Sometimes, I'll see something, and a story will come out of that.

9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?

11. What kind of music speaks to you?
I love music that is complex and/or full of the musicians' energy. When a song is complex, it gives the ears a variety of pleasant sounds to listen to instead of the same notes and chords over and over. When an artist performs with energy, it's contagious. When an artist is clearly having fun while performing, it's fun to listen to their music.

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
Normally I'll get an idea in my head and I'll let it simmer there for a while, until I feel the time is right. By that time, I usually have a general idea of where it's going, a beginning, a few things that happen on the way, and the end. When I start writing, though, I'm often surprised by the challenges my characters have to overcome, and sometimes I'm even sitting there thinking, "gee, how are they going to get out of this alive?" I might know my characters a little bit going into the story, but as I write, they really reveal themselves to me. One might turn out to be a total trickster, one might be a jerk, and so on, and I didn't even know it, yet.

13. Celebrity crush.
I have a lot of them, but my first and biggest is Jesse McCartney. Honorable mentions include Taylor Lautner, Gerard Way, and Miyavi. Honestly, though, this list could go on for a long, long time.

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
First and foremost would probably be Ayn Rand. While some of her politics are a bit extreme for my tastes, her views on the importance of individuality and free-choice resonate with me. I love how her novels always sought not only to tell a great story, but to use that story as a way of expressing her beliefs and ideals. Whenever I write, I strive to also make readers think and examine things in their lives and in the world around them. Secondly would be Mercedes Lackey. Although her genre of choice is fiction, characters are first and foremost to her, and are so well developed that they feel like real people. In my stories, even though they can sometimes be a bit fast-paced, I like to attempt to breathe life into my characters, so that my readers can empathize with them and really be involved in the story instead of feeling like an impartial spectator.

15. Do you still watch cartoons?
I'll watch anything that resonates with me, whether it be a deep, complex drama, or a cartoon. Certain cartoons actually have a great deal of depth, and make outside references that are amusing to those of us who are "well read" in pop-culture. I've seen references to a German movie called 'Run Lola Run', H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, etc. I think any good cartoon should be made to appeal to all ages.

Richard Veysey has been telling stories since he could put words together to form a sentence, and writing since he learned how to read. In his free time, he likes to write, program and play video games, make all-natural moisturizers, face washes, etc., and hang out with his friends. He currently resides in South Portland, Maine and works as a cashier as he tries to get his first book published. He also hates writing about himself in the third person. Find Richard and the other Greater Portland Scribists at their blog (http://scribists.blogspot.com) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/GreaterPortlandScribists). And buy their new book Scribings at Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65295).

HEIDI'S PICK SIX welcomes the Greater Portland Scribists: Cynthia Ravinski, Lee Patterson, Richard Veysey, and Jamie Belanger.

Meet Lee!



Lee Patterson

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
Faust, debuting in my first published work. He is a very large Maine Coon cat. A fun loving cat, with a very dark side, which I enjoy exploring. I am currently exploring Faust's dark side. I model him after my cat Tasha. She leads the carefree life I sometimes wish I could.

2. Tell me about your travels.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Milk, chocolate, shaken not stirred.

4. What else can you do besides write?
Video game programmer, robot builder and programmer. I got out of the video game industry when I moved to the states in pursuit of business software, but I have recently been getting myself back into games. I have published my first iPhone game Tog vs. Dino [http://axorion.com/games] in the app store.

5. Who are you reading right now?
Stephen King. I became interested in his writing once I moved to Maine and discovered he only lived a few short hours away. I had first started listening to his books on CD when I was doing a lot of driving to/from work. Then once I moved out to Maine I took a liking to his stories. He can be a bit wordy, but his stories can be quite amazing. I also started reading Dean Koontz.

6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
9. Food you could eat every day.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?

13. Celebrity crush.
That's easy, Sandra Bullock. She first caught my eye in The Net. But the best movie would have to be Practical Magic. Rarrr!

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
King, I draw my dark influences, and story structure from him. I guess you could say, his work inspired me to start working on my first book. Piers Anthony helps when I have to think of silly or comical situations.

15. Do you still watch cartoons?

Lee Patterson has worked as a software developer for over 17 years at companies like Electronic Arts and IBM. He enjoys long weekends curled up with his iPad, gazing at a nice screen full of source code, and thinking up cleaver ways to kill characters in his short stories. Find Lee and the other Greater Portland Scribists at their blog (http://scribists.blogspot.com) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/GreaterPortlandScribists). And buy their new book Scribings at Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65295).

HEIDI'S PICK SIX welcomes the Greater Portland Scribists: Cynthia Ravinski, Lee Patterson, Richard Veysey, and Jamie Belanger.

Let's meet Cynthia first!

HEIDI'S PICK SIX


<center>Cynthia Ravinski</center>

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?

2. Tell me about your travels.
I love traveling. And I’ve been meaning to do some more lately. When I was still in high school I had the fortune to travel to England, Scotland (during the international festival of the arts in August), Italy and Greece. As a resident of New England, I can hardly count Canada as a foreign country, but I did travel to Montreal for a couple of softball tournaments. Being a tourist in these countries made me want to see and feel different cultures in the world. So I took a semester in France in college. Living in a foreign country for four months may not seem like a long time, but it was. And then it was over in a flash. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done (up there with my first to pitch to an editor), and I probably wouldn’t have done it if I’d known how hard it would be. But I’m very glad to have done it, and encourage everyone to try it at some point.

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Oooh tough call. I’ve been obsessed with tea since I was a kid. I’d love drinking herbal tea, or “horrible tea” as my dad called it. In high school I pretty much drank nothing but straight green tea. And then I discovered the English teas. My parents drank their instant coffee black, so I didn’t really discover that until college, and then I drank about four cups a day, in addition to a few cups of tea. I’ve had to scale back due to the strong affects of caffeine on me. But either way, now I drink both with no sugar and enough milk to make it just the right color.

4. What else can you do besides write?
I make jewelry. Mostly I create wire wrapped stones and my own findings (the metal hardware that holds jewelry together), and some bead stringing for necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Getting a store started on Etsy is my next project for this year. But for now you can see some of my work on my website www.cynthiaravinski.com. What you won’t find on my website are my sad attempts to solder...

5. Who are you reading right now?
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?

8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
When I come across a word with a really interesting meaning, sometimes part of a story springs up around it. Often, reading books about writing inspire me to write by offering inspired solutions to stylistic issues that are hindering my progress. A more grounded inspiration is rocks. That’s right, rocks. I’m no geologist, but the ground and everything under it and how it works fascinates me. And how can I forget my fellow human beings? Just look around and you’ll see what I mean. Everyone’s got a story.

9. Food you could eat everyday.
10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?
11. What kind of music speaks to you?

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
Six of one, half dozen of the other. No matter which I try it never comes out the way I thought it would. When I try outlining, it goes to pieces. When I write without structure… it goes nowhere. So I’ve come up with a hybrid. I keep a three point arc “feel” in mind and drive my story that way. I guess writing down my plot ahead of time just jinxes the poor thing. But when my first draft is done I always create an outline so I can see exactly what I’ve just written.

13. Celebrity crush.

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
It was Tamora Pierce who first got me addicted to fantasy and the thrills of adventuring in a created world. This was when I was still young, so my imagination went rampant. I began reading Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books and wanted to create a world with just as many if not more adventures. I had post-its stuck all over my bedroom walls with ideas I’d dreamed up for my worlds. I later moved onto the elegance of Michael Moorecock and the mythological Robert Holdstock. More recently I’d have to point to K. J. Bishop as someone whose writing I’m trying to figure out.

15. Do you still watch cartoons?
I love watching cartoons. In fact, lately most of the programming I’ve enjoyed have been cartoons. I love South Park and a few things on Adult Swim, especially Venture Brothers. It seems that the folks who make them remember that many adults grew up watching cartoons and have continued to provide animated entertainment for us still.

Cynthia Ravinski just wants to create. Residing in a coastal northern New England setting she crafts stories in other worlds and otherworldly gemstone jewelry. Folklore and mythology fuel that which emerges from her mind and hands. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from UMaine Farmington and an MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. To say she is obsessed with drinking tea is an understatement. Find Cynthia and the other Greater Portland Scribists at their blog (http://scribists.blogspot.com) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/GreaterPortlandScribists).

PATHS TO PUBLICATION

As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: C. Coco DeYoung, Crystal B. Bright, Kaye Dacus, and John DeChancie.

Read about Crystal's publication route:

How I got started with getting published was through my local writing group. Even though I had a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Old Dominion University, and I earned a Master of Arts degree from Seton Hill University in Writing Popular Fiction, I still felt insecure about submitting my work to a publisher.

Rejections hurt. To soften the blow, I entered a lot of writing contests. I won some. I lost some. But losing didn’t break me as much as I thought it would. So when members of my local writing group tipped me off on selling short, sweet romantic stories to a national tabloid magazine called Sun, I decided it was time to try my hand at the publishing world.

I submitted a short story that was very loosely based on aspects of my day job. I work at an electric utility company. What’s more romantic than a hot kiss in one of those utility truck buckets near dangerous power lines? The editor at Sun magazine liked it and offered to publish it. It was a thrilling moment for me to get a check for something I had written. And it was even more exciting to go to my local grocery store and pick up a magazine that had one of my stories inside…even if the cover of the magazine itself proclaimed to have evidence of Bigfoot’s existence. We all have to get our start somewhere.

I had three more short stories published in the magazine before I finally decided to try my hand at a larger publisher. A friend of mine from my writing group had just won a writing contest with the publisher Phaze Books, which is the erotic imprint of Mundania Press, LLC, the same publisher that publishes best-selling author Piers Anthony. After one of my short story submissions had been rejected by Sun magazine when they decided to change their format, my friend encouraged me to submit my story to Phaze Books. So I not only expanded the story, I added more erotic content. My story, now a novella, had been accepted for publication.

When my novella got accepted, I felt comfortable enough to submit my thesis for my Writing Popular Fiction degree to a publisher. I was thrilled when I got "The e-mail" that the publisher wanted to contract it. After that, I’ve been contracted and published by about ten different publishers. So far it’s been a great ride.

--Crystal B. Bright

A self-professed nerd, Crystal B. Bright has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. Not one to give up on her dreams, she was determined to make it as an author after earning her B.A. in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University and her M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Crystal makes Virginia Beach her home. She enjoys writing, reading, watching movies and spending quality time with her family and close friends. To know more, please visit her website at www.CrystalBrightWriter.com.


Crystal is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

PATHS TO PUBLICATION

As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: C. Coco DeYoung, Crystal B. Bright, Kaye Dacus, and John DeChancie.

Find out about C. Coco DeYoung's unique path to publishing:

One should always consider the writing contests. A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt was a submission for the Marguerite de Angeli Prize for historical fiction. Along with the honor, which I hold most dear, came an advance and promise of publication. Over 172,000 copies have sold, the book is available in the Korean language and as an E-book.

--C.Coco DeYoung

C. Coco De Young is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and storyteller. Her middle-grade novel, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, received the Marguerite de Angeli Prize, nomination for 10 State Book Awards, the 2000-2001 Keystone to Reading Book Award, Teacher's Choices 2000 by the International Reading Association, a Booklist "Top 10 First Novels" of 1999, and was selected by the Children's Book Council and the National Council of Social Studies as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Ms. De Young holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Elementary Education, and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, both from Seton Hill University. She resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband, Don.


Coco is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

PATHS TO PUBLICATION

As part of the virtual book tour for Many Genres, One Craft, I have more contributor interviews this week: Teffanie Thompson White, David J. Corwell, Adrea L. Peters, and Lee Allen Howard.

See which path Lee took to publication:
My first “audiobook,” I never heard myself—but I heard of it. It was actually a public reading of my first short story.

As a creative exercise in second grade, Teacher had her pupils write a story. “Be as creative as you can be, children.” I penned—penciled, rather—my debut horror fiction on a ruled school tablet. Teacher, ostensibly pleased with her prodigy’s genius (more likely concerned with a tow-headed eight-year-old’s mental health), passed my work to the elementary school principal. (“Children, ‘principal’ ends with P-A-L—the principal is your PAL.” Keep reading, and then decide...)

Unknown to me, Principal Sprunger, also the president of the local Lions Club chapter in Berne, Indiana, read my story to the men of our little Swiss community and then in good humor fined my father a dime because the preacher’s son had written such an awful tale full of skeletons, witches, and blood.

That is the story of money first changing hands in relation to my fiction. (That dime never found its way into my pocket. If it had, I would have biked down to the White Cottage and bought myself a small soft serve cone, for sure.)

I continued to write through elementary and high school. The Brookville, Pennsylvania, Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper printed our school newsletter, for which I’d written a grisly Halloween story. They decided to reprint it in the paper. This should have overjoyed me, but they printed it anonymously and didn’t pay me for it, either. Bastards.

I placed a short story and some poetry in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s New Growth Arts Revue. I stopped writing for a few years, but started again when I envisioned a scene about a young man who had been shot in the stomach and stumbled into an alley to die. I developed this into my first suspense novel for the Christian market, When the Music Stops, long out of print.

After completing my master of arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, I entered the publishing arena and compiled a trade paperback anthology of shorts based on the Ten Commandments. Thou Shalt Not... came out in 2006. It’s a great collection of horror and dark crime. Check it out.

I’ve placed a few short stories for pay in the past decade, but after hundreds of rejections, I recently decided to take a different route.

One of the reasons I’ve had trouble in placing my work, especially novels, is because they don’t cleanly fit into a genre slot. Why is this important? Because brick-and-mortar bookstores need to know where to shelve a book. So part of the writing-for-print-publication process is writing for a shelf spot. (And length requirements in genre fiction in part are based on how many books will conveniently fit in a cardboard carton for shipping.) I think that’s just ridiculous.

I had been working on a novel proposal for Dorchester Publishing/Leisure Books. But after the debacle with their selling ebooks without remunerating authors, I stuffed that idea down the disposal. In a nutshell, since second grade, I’ve learned that publishing by the traditional route is inorganically restricted and highly improbable. The royalties paid (if they pay)… well, suck. The emperor is buck nekkid.

So I recently published my second novel, The Sixth Seed for Kindle and Nook ereaders. It cost me nothing to post it on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, and I’m already selling downloads at a 70% royalty. And I can add as many meta tags as I want with no concern for a shelf spot or how I will otherwise categorize “a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror.” It’s still a great read, and no trees died.

If somebody offers me a great print deal, I’ll consider it. But from now on, I plan to trek the electronic path.

--Lee Allen Howard

Lee Allen Howard has been a professional writer in the software industry since 1985. Besides editing fiction and non-fiction, he does editing and layout for health and fitness professionals. Lee writes horror, erotic horror, dark fantasy, and crime. His publication credits include Cemetery Sonata anthology, Out newspaper, Thou Shalt Not... anthology, and Amber Quill Press. Lee also writes about metaphysical and consciousness issues on his blog at http://buildingthebridge.wordpress.com. You can also visit him at http://leeallenhoward.com.


Lee is a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing guide edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller and based on the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction graduate program.

Among the attendees at the Nebula Awards Weekend at the Washington Hilton last month was Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction contributor Diane Turnshek, seen here with Catharine Asaro.

The Nebula Awards are presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

The 2012 Nebula Awards Weekend will be held Thursday through Sunday, May 15 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport.