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Michael J. Edwards

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

https://michaeljedwards.com/

Genre

Science Fiction

Member Since

June 2021

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/michaeljedwards

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Michael J. Edwards is a writer living in the Pacific Northwest (USA). Having unexpectedly found himself in his seventh decade of life, he decided to retire from Boeing and become a writer of speculative fiction. He has two published novels: The Emissary and The Eye of Crasis.

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Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Michael J. Edwards 1. LEARN THE CRAFT

Writing is a craft, and like any craft, it has a set of basic skills you have to learn if you want to be good at it. Point of view,…more1. LEARN THE CRAFT

Writing is a craft, and like any craft, it has a set of basic skills you have to learn if you want to be good at it. Point of view, description, characterization, character arc, dialog, pacing, orchestration, structure, and so on. Read books by successful writers and ask yourself how they handle each of these. Read books about each of these skills. Take a writing class. Attend the craft sessions at a writers’ conference. Learn the craft.

2. PRACTICE

Like any craft, your writing will improve with practice. I wrote several short stories and two practice novels before I felt I had mastered the craft well enough to write The Emissary.

3. FIND BETA READERS

Preferably other writers in the same genre who are willing to read and critique your manuscript. I’m not talking about critique groups where small pieces of your story are critiqued. You need critiques of the entire book so things like structure and character arcs are included. Check out Goodreads’ beta reader group.

4. WRITE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

The trick on your first draft is to kill your inner editor. You know, that voice in your head telling you to go back and fix the sentence you just mangled. The goal of your first draft is to get your story onto the page as fast as you can. THEN go back and start revising.

I have a friend who refers to her first draft as “my SFD—shitty first draft.” Someone once said, “If your first draft isn’t crap, you’re doing it wrong.” Supposedly Ernest Hemingway said, “Write drunk, edit sober.” (He didn’t, and neither should you.) The best way I know to shut down my inner editor is to type with my eyes closed. If my inner editor doesn’t see it, he can’t complain about it. It takes a little practice and a lot of self-discipline. Oh, and you have to learn to type without looking at the keyboard (called touch typing). If you never learned how to do that, try turning off the monitor while writing. Your inner editor will whine, but just slap her and tell her to live with it.

5. LEARN THE RULES OF GRAMMAR

Presumably you use a writing tool that includes spell check (I use Scrivener). Use it when you get to the second draft. Beyond that, learn the English rules of grammar. I keep a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style on a table where I write. Whenever I hit something I’m not sure about (e.g., commas, hyphens, capitalization, grammar, names and titles) I read up on it and improve my mastery of the English language.(less)

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Michael J. Edwards
The Emissary has an origin story. Fifteen years ago, my son Joshua, who was working toward a PhD in theoretical mathematics, was diagnosed with a brai…more
The Emissary has an origin story. Fifteen years ago, my son Joshua, who was working toward a PhD in theoretical mathematics, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a glioblastoma, an especially aggressive tumor type. An emergency surgery removed as much of it as possible, but it could not be entirely removed. Thus, my wife and I entered into a five-year journey with our son through chemo and radiation therapies until his death at the age of thirty. It was a harrowing journey that I would not wish on anyone.

Near the end of his life, he came up with an idea for a novel, and we began working on it together. We did not get very far before he was no longer able to contribute, and he made me promise to finish it after he was gone. This book is the result.(less)

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Combine Editions
Michael J. Edwards’s books

Average rating: 4.5 · 609 ratings · 59 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Emissary 4.50 avg rating — 484 ratings — published 2021 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Eye of Crasis: An Alien Technology Thriller 4.48 avg rating — 125 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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8 posts
Michael J. Edwards's Blog

EMISSARY SEQUEL

EMISSARY SEQUEL

No, I haven’t finished writing Qilin (chee-LEEN) yet, but I have finished the first draft, which means the basic story has been written. Now begins the revision process in which I try to make it a whole lot better.

However, I will set it aside for a month to marinate while I finish writing a novella that goes back to Earth to explore what life was like for ordinary people living in t Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 07, 2023 08:50

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Quotes by Michael J. Edwards (?)

“It's not the aliens you have to worry about; it's the humans.”
― Michael J Edwards

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Michael’s Quotes

“It's not the aliens you have to worry about; it's the humans.”
― Michael J Edwards

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