Tom 🇨🇦
@tom69.bsky.social
Been a space nerd since the early 60s, still waiting for humankind to return to the moon. I love writing. Recently finished a 307-page beast I've been working on since 2017. Computer nerd too.
Kicking the Blahs Out of Your Novel writerunboxed.com/2026/01/01/k...
Kicking the Blahs Out of Your Novel
How Your Favorite Books Teach ‘Gotta Know’ As I slough off the holiday season—exhausted from shopping, cooking, and making happiness-for-family my life mission—I’m wiggling back into my…
writerunboxed.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Kicking the Blahs Out of Your Novel writerunboxed.com/2026/01/01/k...
An Eztraordinary Ezperience: A Short Story stuartaken.net/2025/12/27/a...
An Eztraordinary Ezperience: A Short Story
Here’s this week’s free to read short story for your entertainment. This one was entered for a contest and published in the resultant anthology, ‘To Hull And Back 2016’. An …
stuartaken.net
December 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
An Eztraordinary Ezperience: A Short Story stuartaken.net/2025/12/27/a...
Is There Progress In The Work In Progress? stuartaken.net/2025/12/26/i...
Is There Progress In The Work In Progress?
I last wrote about the WIP on the 8th of August. How is it possible I’ve allowed all those days to pass without a single catch-up piece?At that time, the MS stood at 122,237 words over 282 pages. A…
stuartaken.net
December 26, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Is There Progress In The Work In Progress? stuartaken.net/2025/12/26/i...
Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview stuartaken.net/2025/12/24/o...
Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview
What is ‘Outline’? Is it a novel, a collection of essays, a piece of philosophy, an account of the physical, mental and emotional wanderings of the gifted author? It is all these things, and more.W…
stuartaken.net
December 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview stuartaken.net/2025/12/24/o...
All the Best, Everyone, Everywhere, for 2025 and 2026 kathysteinemann.com/Musings/merr...
All the Best, Everyone, Everywhere, for 2025 and 2026
Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, and Readers, Whether you celebrate Christmas as a commemoration of Christ’s birth, or you observe other customs, I wish you a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday…
kathysteinemann.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:08 PM
All the Best, Everyone, Everywhere, for 2025 and 2026 kathysteinemann.com/Musings/merr...
Skating Into 2026: Happy Holidays, Writer Unboxed Community! writerunboxed.com/2025/12/22/s...
Skating Into 2026: Happy Holidays, Writer Unboxed Community!
Writer Unboxed will be taking its annual holiday break through the rest of this year, but we’ll be back on January 1st! Something special to think about: Writer Unboxed will turn TWENTY next …
writerunboxed.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Skating Into 2026: Happy Holidays, Writer Unboxed Community! writerunboxed.com/2025/12/22/s...
Side By Side - A Short Story stuartaken.net/2025/12/20/s...
Side By Side – A Short Story
Image generated on MS Paint Using Co-pilot. I’m going to attempt to place a short story here every week. Some will have been published, others, like this one, will never have been seen. IR…
stuartaken.net
December 21, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Side By Side - A Short Story stuartaken.net/2025/12/20/s...
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel) nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/k...
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel)
For all of us with creative work on the go, Christmas and the end-of-year holidays might mean one of two things: 1 Goody! Loads of time to work properly on my book. 2 Gah! Too much to do, too many …
nailyournovel.wordpress.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel) nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/k...
The Allure of Audio Books writerunboxed.com/2025/12/19/t...
The Allure of Audio Books
A little while ago, I read an interesting article in The New York Times headlined ‘Do Audiobooks Count as Reading?’ It was by Brian Bannon, chief librarian at the New York Public Library, and he st…
writerunboxed.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
The Allure of Audio Books writerunboxed.com/2025/12/19/t...
Walk 1,000 Miles In A Year stuartaken.net/2025/12/18/w...
Walk 1,000 Miles In A Year
For a few years now, my wife and I have accepted a challenge set by Country Walking Magazine to walk 1,000 miles in a year. The weekly milage required to achieve this is actually only 19.23, which …
stuartaken.net
December 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Walk 1,000 Miles In A Year stuartaken.net/2025/12/18/w...
Flog a Pro: Would You Turn the First Page of this Bestseller? writerunboxed.com/2025/12/18/f...
Flog a Pro: Would You Turn the First Page of this Bestseller?
Email readers, heads up! For the full effect, pause after the excerpt and decide: Would you turn the page? Vote and then scroll for the reveal! Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors a…
writerunboxed.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Flog a Pro: Would You Turn the First Page of this Bestseller? writerunboxed.com/2025/12/18/f...
My Final Post writerunboxed.com/2025/12/17/m...
My Final Post
Yes, I’m stepping down as a contributor to Writer Unboxed. When I told Therese about my decision, she urged me to share my reasons and reflections with all of you. I agreed—not realizing that this …
writerunboxed.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
My Final Post writerunboxed.com/2025/12/17/m...
Santa’s Redundancy Quiz #1: Can You Beat Rudolph’s Score? kathysteinemann.com/Musings/sant...
Santa’s Redundancy Quiz #1: Can You Beat Rudolph’s Score?
Ho, Ho, Ho! Santa Here I was looking at Kathy’s Christmas list the other day, and saw that she wanted someone to create a redundancy quiz for her. Hmm, I thought, that sounds like fun. But nobody w…
kathysteinemann.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Santa’s Redundancy Quiz #1: Can You Beat Rudolph’s Score? kathysteinemann.com/Musings/sant...
How to Begin Your Novel at the Beginning writerunboxed.com/2025/12/16/h...
How to Begin Your Novel at the Beginning
I recently finished my third novel. It took much longer to write than I would have liked, certainly much longer than it took me to write either of the first two. There were a few reasons for this. …
writerunboxed.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
How to Begin Your Novel at the Beginning writerunboxed.com/2025/12/16/h...
Writing the Dark and the Light and A Year of Reflection writerunboxed.com/2025/12/15/w...
Writing the Dark and the Light and A Year of Reflection
As someone who lives in New England and loves the seasons – the cyclical nature of dark and light, growth and decay, cold and heat, and the breathless beauty of the between – I don’t lament the wea…
writerunboxed.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Writing the Dark and the Light and A Year of Reflection writerunboxed.com/2025/12/15/w...
Dive Deep and Take Your Fiction Writing to the Next Level with an Odyssey Online Class! writerunboxed.com/2025/12/14/d...
Dive Deep and Take Your Fiction Writing to the Next Level with an Odyssey Online Class!
Receive individual attention and in-depth feedback with an Odyssey Online class! Award-winning instructors. Only 3 courses per year. Only 14 students per course. Application deadline 1/18. Don…
writerunboxed.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Dive Deep and Take Your Fiction Writing to the Next Level with an Odyssey Online Class! writerunboxed.com/2025/12/14/d...
Twilight Zone 2026: Daedalus and the Centaur writerunboxed.com/2025/12/12/t...
Twilight Zone 2026: Daedalus and the Centaur
Imagine if you will … Meet Penelope Laredo. She’s hammering away at her second novel, which she’s under contract to submit to her publisher by March 1, 2026. Despite the success of her debut, Innoc…
writerunboxed.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Twilight Zone 2026: Daedalus and the Centaur writerunboxed.com/2025/12/12/t...
Book Marketing and PR Part XIX: What does media for an author look like? writerunboxed.com/2025/12/11/b...
Book Marketing and PR Part XIX: What does media for an author look like?
It’s a common question: what kind of media could my book get? Most authors ask for Oprah, Jenna, and Reece. Most will not get the Oprah, Jenna, and Reece stamp. And that’s really ok; i…
writerunboxed.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Book Marketing and PR Part XIX: What does media for an author look like? writerunboxed.com/2025/12/11/b...
Joy to the World—and Sorrow writerunboxed.com/2025/12/10/j...
Joy to the World—and Sorrow
A few years ago, I was in my kitchen on Thanksgiving Day with my husband and kids, listening to music and chopping celery and thinking about the dinner we were hosting. Suddenly Joni Mitchell’s son…
writerunboxed.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Joy to the World—and Sorrow writerunboxed.com/2025/12/10/j...
A Quick Update on What’s Happening at KathySteinemann.com kathysteinemann.com/Musings/upda...
KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers
Word lists, cheat sheets, and sometimes irreverent reviews of writing rules. Kathy Steinemann is the author of the Writer's Lexicon series.
KathySteinemann.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:07 PM
A Quick Update on What’s Happening at KathySteinemann.com kathysteinemann.com/Musings/upda...
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel) nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/k...
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel)
For all of us with creative work on the go, Christmas and the end-of-year holidays might mean one of two things: 1 Goody! Loads of time to work properly on my book. 2 Gah! Too much to do, too many …
nailyournovel.wordpress.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Keeping hold of your work-in-progress over Christmas (or nail your novel while nailing your noel) nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/k...
Successful Author Events 101 writerunboxed.com/2025/12/09/s...
Successful Author Events 101
I’ve just scrolled through the calendar app on my phone, tallying up the author events I’ve done since August of 2024 to now, December of 2025. 82! 82 events including in-person talks, signings, di…
writerunboxed.com
December 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Successful Author Events 101 writerunboxed.com/2025/12/09/s...
Successful Author Events 101 writerunboxed.com/2025/12/09/s...
Successful Author Events 101
I’ve just scrolled through the calendar app on my phone, tallying up the author events I’ve done since August of 2024 to now, December of 2025. 82! 82 events including in-person talks, signings, di…
writerunboxed.com
December 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Successful Author Events 101 writerunboxed.com/2025/12/09/s...
RIP, Porter Anderson writerunboxed.com/2025/12/08/r...
RIP, Porter Anderson
I’m so sorry to share news that longtime Writer Unboxed contributor Porter Anderson has died. Word of his passing ricocheted across the international book world last week beginning with announcemen…
writerunboxed.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:57 PM
RIP, Porter Anderson writerunboxed.com/2025/12/08/r...
Why Cutting Corners in Publishing Costs More Than It Saves writerunboxed.com/2025/12/07/w...
Why Cutting Corners in Publishing Costs More Than It Saves
You have poured heart, time, and countless revisions into your manuscript. At some point, every author pauses and asks: Am I truly ready to publish this book? Will my work stand out in a crowded ma…
writerunboxed.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Why Cutting Corners in Publishing Costs More Than It Saves writerunboxed.com/2025/12/07/w...