I earn more writing novels than short stories — and you probably will too — For several years now, I’ve been earning the majority of my income by writing fiction under a variety of pen names you’ve never heard of. And it isn’t anything special about me. Thousands of authors you’ve never heard of are quietly making a full-time living creating fiction. True, thousands of…

Why Trump’s FBI investigation brings back memories of the quarterback’s federal conviction — Around the time of the Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal, I used to play in a regular 20/40 hold ’em game with a lot of guys from Atlanta. This game was the highest stakes game in [town that shall go unnamed] at the time, so you met a lot of interesting…

Two photographs to celebrate World Elephant Day 2022 — To celebrate World Elephant Day, which falls on August 12 each year, I decided to share a couple of elephant photographs to inspire you to support the cause of elephant conservation. After all, the key to getting a good photograph of a wild elephant is for elephants to continue to…

Don’t go there, just don’t ever, as Charlie Brown used to say, bleagh — Um, don’t click if you’re easily offended, but I have a social media fail to gripe about today. Also, I’ve got questions. If you’re still hosting your writer’s group on Facebook in 2022, why? For that matter, if you’re still hosting your anything group on Facebook, why? Do people really…

I live for these stealth raids, first al-Zawahiri and now… — Sorry to interrupt the relentless doom scroll, but if you’re not partying already, break out the bottle of champagne! Just when you thought all was lost, the human cause was hopeless, and the future would be the same miserable hardscrabble scratch for survival that was (almost all) of the past… …

How authors can make a bit more from tips — I’m so pleased with the new tipping option that lets you send the generous reader to the payment platform of your choice. This could have been a very easy thing to screw up, but it’s looking good. And two thumbs up to the kind reader who already tipped. This option…

When writers break this basic online etiquette rule, they lose readers and friends — A recent change in this platform has caused me to make a change in my policy about people who add links to my comments section. For the last few days, I’ve been blocking people who add uninvited links. Maybe I should have announced the policy first but I felt like…