Welcome to my worlds!

I'm James Maxey, author of fantasy and science fiction. My novels include the science fantasy Bitterwood Saga (4 books) the Dragon Apocalypse Saga (4 books), numerous superhero novels including Nobody Gets the Girl and the Lawless series, the steampunk Oz sequel Bad Wizard, and my short story collections, There is No Wheel and Jagged Gate. This website is focused exclusively on writing. At my second blog, Jawbone of an Ass, I ramble through any random topic that springs to mind, occasionally touching on religion and politics and other subjects polite people are sensible enough not to discuss in public. If you'd like to get monthly updates on new releases, as well as preview chapters and free short stories, join my newsletter!




Friday, November 28, 2008

Signing in Greensboro, December 5

Just a reminder that I'll be in Greensboro on Friday, December 5, at the Barnes and Noble at 7pm. Orson Scott Card is the main attraction, with Ed Schubert, Scott Roberts, and yours truly participating in the signing of the Intergalactic Medicine Show anthology, as well as pimping our own books.

In other news, a podcast of part of my lecture to the Odyssey Fantasy Writer's Workshop this summer is now online. To quote from the site: James Maxey was a guest lecturer at Odyssey 2008. During his visit, James shared the struggles and successes of his writing career and offered a lot of great advice to developing writers. In this podcast, James explains that editors don't judge a piece by a new writer the same way they judge a piece by a successful writer. Because a new writer has to prove his competence, a strong opening is critical. To create a strong opening, an author must engage multiple senses and provide vivid descriptions to bring the reader into the story. James reviews the many tasks that an opening must accomplish and explores some of the ways that the author can accomplish these tasks. He describes some of the traps that authors fall into when writing openings. He also reveals a simple and powerful technique to draw the reader in and reveal key information in an opening.

If you'd like to hear it for youself, click here.

No comments: