D.L. Mackenzie's Blog

Hat tip to Britt Ringel, author of the This Corner of the Universe series of military sci-fi novels, for tricking me into participating in this “Writer’s Process Blog Tour.”  Each week a new set of writers answers four questions about what they are working on, and how they work on whatever it is they’re working on.  I've invited three more brave souls to join me in this tour by blogging their responses next week.  If they do not maintain the chain, bad luck will befall the...

A short time ago I found out I had clinched a spot in The Iron Writer Summer Solstice Open, and the Preliminary Round is underway now.  The challenge elements for this story are:

The Avengers vs. The Justice League of America (as if I know anything about superheroes)

A Minion (yes, one of those Twinkie-looking creatures from Despicable Me)

A Traveling Chamber Pot Salesperson (as if I know anything about traveling chamber pots)

Also, the story must be told from the point of view of Death, the...

And the winner is... me!Thanks to everyone who voted for my flash fiction story, "Like a Steel Trap" during the Iron Writer Challenge #67.  I came in second in the reader poll but the panel of judges selected my story the winner!

Obviously, the judges were more discerning than the mob of philistines who voted for my competitors.

Now, on to the next challenge.  I think this win qualifies me for the upcoming Iron Writer Summer Solstice Open.  Details and shameless importuning for v...

In preparation for an upcoming release of a deluxe omnibus edition of The Magnetron Chronicles, I've finally gotten round to finishing the biographical sketch of the redoubtable Leonardo Cerebelli....

Although no official written documents remain, credible accounts indicate that Leonardo Cerebelli was born in 1830 in New York’s Flatbush community to grocers Enzo and Aurora Cerebelli.  Nevertheless, Cerebelli was dogged for much of his life by rumors he was truly the son of notorious Cosa...

I recently joined a great online writing group called The Iron Writer, which challenges writers to write 525-word "flash fiction" stories using four preselected elements from a mystery basket.  My first Iron Writer Challenge story is called "Like a Steel Trap" and includes the following four elements:

The Gods
Dice
Cocktails
Irrigation boots

That's right.  Irrigation boots.

I chose Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and put together a gritty little tale that answers the question, "what if...

It's been a terribly long time since I have posted anything on this blog, and indeed, it's been a long time since I've written much of anything.  Why?  I've been busy working on a project called Fictivity Press.  In short, it's an experiment in what we are calling "crowd-subsidized publishing," a method of self-publishing similar to a vanity press (also known as subsidy press).  The main difference is that—instead of the writer paying to have his or her book prepared for p...

I've written here, here, and there on the topic of creating plots, outlines and story lines in fiction, but I still frequently become embroiled in the "Pantser vs. Plotter" wars.  In other words, some writers sit down and write "by the seat of their pants," while others meticulously plot every jot and tittle before writing a line.  For some reason, many seem to think this is an all-or-nothing decision, but I disagree.

I am a notorious fence-sitter, which permits me the luxury of crit...

 A year and a half after publishing The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, I'm now venturing into the brave new (for me, anyway) world of audio publishing in two different media forms.

I'm in the early stages of an Audible.com audiobook production read by the incomparable Lee Strayer of Atomic 27 Media.  The plan is to release the Magnetron Chronicles stories as they were originally conceived: in serialized form.  More details as they become available...

In other news, New Zeal...

This is the ninth installment in the continuing story of "Editing Mister D," a joint project to coach British nonfiction writer Pete Oxley through completion and publication of his first novel-length fiction work, now tentatively titled "The Infernal Aether."

Perhaps my most distressing writing bugbear is the scourge known as the “weak verb.”  Verbs are action words, so it would seem that simply using a verb would tend to jazz up an otherwise unremarkable noun but, alas, that is not alway...

This is the eighth installment in the continuing story of "Editing Mister D," a joint project to coach British nonfiction writer Pete Oxley through completion and publication of his first novel-length fiction work.

You’ve been quite disciplined about your new story idea, laying out the whole plot, getting a good handle on your storyline and characters, and so you sit down to write.  The blank screen is your canvas, the keyboard your brush, and the world is full to bursting with possibilities. ...