If I have nothing planned for the day, which is 5-6 days out of the week, I start writing after breakfast, go walking before lunch, do promos or write some more after lunch. I quit at 5:00pm. The evening is my time to relax and watch a movie, which leads to research. I write most of the time on the computer, but a few times I will hand write.
Yes, I do. When I do get a unfavorable one, I check my blurb and redo it and date it so it will show I have made a correction after the bad review. I also reread my book and see if I can catch any errors or add another scene. I consider my stories fluid and will update them from time to time.
Obviously, it's stealing. How lazy and inept would someone have to be to copy another author's work? There are sites out there and I should be glad someone wants to read my book but these places need to be reported.
Many times. Maybe it was a broken dish in Where Did They Go? or the actual sights I experienced in my travel books. Granted I've never been to Mars but I have flown and I incorporated those experiences into Similar But Not the Same
I've always thought about writing but from the 1960s through the 1990s there wasn't an easy way to get published. Work and life kept getting in the way until I retired. Nine years ago, I saw a notice in the library about a writing club. After I joined, I realized it was the best decision I ever made in this profession. I wrote 16 books to date.
Usually it's stories from the newspaper, or a subject I feel about that slips in a slice of real life into my stories. Though I write science fiction and urban fantasy, I wrote about my travel experiences to Europe in my Travel Mysteries. Then I remembered a terrifying story from my home town. I wrote about that night and any royalties I receive from The Night the Bridge Collapsed shall go to the local museum.
Grammar and punctuation. Some people think you don't need a lot of commas in SF, but you do. If you are an unknown like me, you better have beta readers and an editor to present your story in a clear manner.
