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3 Tips on Getting Back on Track When Life Knocks You Down

January 30, 2017 by Tee Morris 5 Comments

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Tae a Moose
Robert Burns, 1785

January is wrapping up this week, and for me this month has been less than kind. In fact, it has been a right train wreck. When I rang in the new year with friends and family, and celebrated its beginning with a day of great games, good food, and the best of people, I made plans to get cracking on a few major projects that would carry me into the summer. The first project was, of course, Operation: Endgame, the final adventure of Agents Books and Braun. Then there’s the fifth and final season of Tales from the Archives, kicked off on Christmas Day with our Christmas Special. I’ve also got an idea percolating pretty hard in my noggin to the point of where I’m collecting a lot of resources and researching hard how to pull this idea off. All this, and I’ve got a special photoshoot in the works for The Pixel Project and was gearing up for my first con appearance of 2017 alongside Nick Kelly and Robert V. Aldrich.

Six Characters in Search of an Author: A Review of Westworld

December 8, 2016 by Tee Morris 6 Comments

***
SPOILERS AHEAD!
THIS IS A DEEP DIVE INTO WESTWORLD,
BOTH SEASON ONE AND ITS FINALE.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
***

This weekend, HBO’s science fiction epic Westworld wrapped up their inaugural season.

Since Sunday night, I have been working through my feelings about that finale, and about this season…but that final episode of Westworld feels best summed up like this…

One more…

Election 2016: The Day After

November 9, 2016 by Tee Morris 2 Comments

I’ve got a terrible habit that I need to let you all know about: I glance at my phone way too often when I drive. It’s a bad habit that I developed when I was freelancing, working long hours, and glancing at Twitter to break the monotony on long drives. I’ve gotten a lot better at curtailing the “need for feed” as Boom is getting older, but this morning I checked my feed on the inchworm commute to work. No, I shouldn’t have. Yes, I nearly rear-ended someone. It was reckless. It was stupid. I should be safer. Both me and the Volt made it to work with nary a scratch…

Well, no, that’s not 100% true. [Read more…] about Election 2016: The Day After

NaNoWriMo: It Should Be Your First Step, Not Your Excuse

November 4, 2016 by Tee Morris 7 Comments

November is upon us, and with the close of Halloween and the beginning of a new month you might be seeing across various social media platforms “daily word counts” being posted, sudden concerns about productivity, or rants over applications like “Scrivener” or “Write or Die” when they unexpectedly crashes. If this is happening to you, I’d recommend stocking up on coffee for your friends and patience with yourself. November is the month of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.

I’ve seen writers react both positively and negatively over the event. The positive sentiment usually constitutes cheerleading, tough love advice, and an overall celebration of hardcore, P90 X-style word-herding. The authors who loathe NaNoWriMo? They hate it with a passion, and don’t get the nay-sayers started on the NaNoWriMo instances that see publication. That’s some prime vitriol there. [Read more…] about NaNoWriMo: It Should Be Your First Step, Not Your Excuse

Five Things I Learned When Writing a Young Adult Book

October 17, 2016 by Tee Morris 2 Comments

Recently, The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh went live on Amazon, print editions premiering this week at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, provided we get no unforeseen whammies from CreateSpace. (Thanks, Hurricane Matthew!) Silver Pharaoh is not my first novel, nor is it my first foray into steampunk, as many of you know. The thing about this book that has me fidgeting nervously as reviews start to trickle in is that Silver Pharaoh is my first step into the realm of Young Adult fiction.

And that terrifies me. Greatly.

I’ve got a lot of feelings about Y.A. Fiction, one being that those reading Y.A. are not necessarily “young” adults. Think about it—while Harry Potter could be easily dismissed as a “kid’s book” and is found in the Children’s sections of bookstores and libraries everywhere, just as many adults devoured the adventures of the Boy Who Lived just as ravenously as its target audience.

So, yeah, working in the wild and woolly world of Y.A. for the first time, I picked up a few things… [Read more…] about Five Things I Learned When Writing a Young Adult Book

Writing Is Not a Solo Sport

September 16, 2016 by Tee Morris Leave a Comment

Striking a hero’s pose here is Drew Mierzejewski. I briefly met him two years ago through Alyson Grauer. Now if Aly’s name sounds familiar, it’s because you can find her lending her voice to one of my podcasts here, hear her rock the steampunk here, do it again here, and then giving good panel at DemiCon 25. Aly’s got game. So does Drew. That might be one of many reason these two got married.

Check it out, Chicago. This is an up-and-coming power couple to watch. I’m just sayin’.

Thing about Drew—I wish I knew him better. Something just tells me we’d be talking to the wee small hours in the morning about…stuff. Deep stuff. I especially got that impression when I saw a random Facebook post from him yesterday about the road creatives walk. The entire thread is here, and you really should check it out or even chime in if you like, but this was the part that made me stop and think…

Therefore, I would like to place a hypothetical to each of you. Why do we do walk this road alone? There are many of us! Why do we not band together in a great bonfire of creativity and make art? Is it impractical? It is idealistic? Is it too terrifying? What is stopping us from creating a massive company that makes art year round, in which we pool resources and talent to make the best of what we have to offer? Now, I want to reiterate that I ask this in hypothetical but I do want to hear your thoughts on this. So please take a moment and tell me in the comments what you think. Tell me why.