A Personal Loss
Update 7/12/2020: I appreciate the outpouring of kind words. John is remembered on this memory wall at the Tribute Archive, where I’ve posted some pictures and the eulogy I read at a small ceremony with his family. Another small memorial will be held among his friends in the coming weeks. I write this in a state of shock. My partner for just over a year, John, passed away last night or early this morning (the cause is still to be determined. I believe he went in his sleep). He had...
Read MoreMoney Management and Living on a Budget for Freelancers – Part 2: Expenses
Let’s continue this series with a discussion of how I keep expenses down. Again, I’m not going to tell you not to buy Starbucks (but I will explain how I don’t). And if you’ve been penny-pinching for years, this might not all be new to you, or feasible for you. Part of my inspiration for this blog series came about after I read The $1,000 Challenge and realized I was already executing most of its tips that applied to me (it’s still a highly entertaining and pretty...
Read MoreMoney Management and Living on a Budget for Freelancers – Part 1: Income
This not going to be a series of posts where I tell you to stop buying lattes at Starbucks (though I will talk about what I do instead). Nor am I going to magically fix your budget with a few suggestions – wish I could, especially in these times when many people are facing budget strain, freelancers not least. But over the past few months, as I’ve advised a number of new freelancers, I realized there numerous tips I wish I’d taken sooner, and which seemed new to my friends....
Read MoreNew Story Collections: Heroes, Apocalypse, Loyalty and Betrayal
Embarrassment is a poor motivation for writing, so I won’t be ashamed about how little readers have seen of me over the past few years. I haven’t been wasting my time – I’ve edited dozens of amazing novels, helped to plan two Waukesha County Sustainability Fairs, and found out this online dating thing might be all it’s cracked up to be (even if it means off-line interactions require an hour-long drive. I’m taking audiobook recommendations, by the way!). All...
Read MoreBefore Editing: A Recommended Reading List
Part of being an editor is noticing patterns—the motion of a character arc, the raveling of a resolution, or the fact that the past five paragraphs have all started with the same word. Here’s another pattern: I’ve been recommending certain articles and books to almost every client I work with, year after year. So why not share them here once and for all? These 12 short articles and 6 books delve into the writing techniques I comment on most frequently. Many of them formed the core of my own...
Read More“John Kosichev” in Storyteller magazine
As I said in my last post, it turns out that when you send stories regularly in answer to calls for submissions, you sometimes get stories accepted! I’m very excited to break my long publishing silence with a release in a new magazine, Storyteller, with a story that’s been a particular favorite of mine (even when it took a few drafts), “John Kosichev.” This issue of Storyteller includes some gripping and rather timely stories tackling issues of virtual reality,...
Read MoreAqua Vitae
Jenes Inarya wants to live to experience everything, and it just might be possible. Her quest for immortality leads her through myth and legend to the farthest reaches of the galaxy (well, so the Jericho magazine article said, although it’s prone to exaggeration). And it’s only the beginning. The rest of a very long life is about to start–but Jenes doesn’t yet know how to live it. “Aqua Vitae is only 70-pages long, but manages to pack a lot…part...
Read MoreShort Stories: Science Fiction Stories
“John Kosichev” in Storyteller Magazine, Vol 1, No 2 “http://amzn.to/2ra5H4mArnheim’s World” in Analog Magazine, May 2015 “Drown or Die” in The Future Fire and TFF-X: Ten Years of The Future Fire “To the Altar” in Warrior Wisewoman 3 Find it at: Amazon Barnes and Noble Powell’s Alibris Better World Books Reprinted in Andromeda’s Children “Reila’s Machine” in M-BRANE Science Fiction’s anthology Things...
Read More12 Words to (Almost Always) Cut
Strong stories are not necessarily short. They don’t need to be Hemingway-esque masterpieces of bare prose. In fact, I have friends who would argue “Hemingway-esque masterpiece” is an oxymoron; the man’s writing gets downright boring. And it would be hypocritical of me to argue for only short sentences or short paragraphs. I have to consciously apply myself to make use of either. But in a strong story, every word counts. And no word is misplaced or ill-chosen. The...
Read MorePrint-on-Demand Formatting for Better Royalties
CreateSpace is one of the most popular POD (print-on-demand) choices for self-publishing authors and small presses. Each time a book is ordered through Amazon or another retailer, CreateSpace prints the book and ships it. Each month, CreateSpace sends the author accrued royalties, after it takes its printing and distribution costs. The author doesn’t need to worry about managing an inventory of unsold books-all one needs to do is write the book and upload it with proper formatting. And...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.