Author: Michael Merriam

4th Street Fantasy Convention is fast approaching. As in it is happening on June 20th through June 22nd. Given that, it seems a good time to stop and post my schedule. Saturday, June 21, 2014 9:30 AM – Originality and Micro-genre Readers who are versed in a sub-genre and its conventions can find what outsiders… Continue reading 4th Street Fantasy Convention

Another not very good week for working on the novel. I need to figure out some kind of writing schedule, but my personal life seems to be in such a constant state of changing gears that I can’t find stability in the chaos to work. I’m too tired after work. Weekends are always packed. My… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #17

Sometimes life and fiction are a little odd. In my novel Last Car to Annwn Station there is a scene where Mae is in Uptown and runs into Jill. Mae wants to walk over to Dunn Brothers Coffee, but Jill convinces her to go to Muddy Paws instead for both coffee and cheesecake. This scene,… Continue reading At the Intersection of Life and Fiction

Another week of poor writing metrics. I am hopeful things are turning around now that I’ve figured out why I had stalled. I didn’t get as much writing done as I would have liked over the holiday weekend, but sometimes that’s just the way life goes. 1. Wrote about 1700 words. 2. Untangled a plot… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #16

So. Minnesota Fringe Festival. That’s a thing I’m going to be in again this year. The “Invisible People” show I’m part of came in off the waitlist. “Invisible People” as in people other people like to pretend don’t exist. Like, you know, gimps like me. I am thrilled and a little scared. My acoustic bass… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #15

I managed to get some pretty good writing done this week, most of it in coffee shops while waiting to be at other events. I spent a lot of my week dealing with my previous post about Convergence, but at least the conversation about the convention was civil. I also had the pleasure to moderate… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #14

I’ve been attending Convergence since 2002. I’ve watched it grow and morph, watched it struggle and triumph over those struggles. Watched it become the nearly 7000 member convention it has become. Convergence has been pretty good to me, having me as an invited participant for the last few years and hosting several of my book… Continue reading In Which We Bid Convergence Adieu And Explain Why

This week was a strange and odd week for writing. I didn’t get as much done as I thought I might, since I decided to go on the spring camping trip a friend of mine organizes. It was the first camping trip I’d been on in about 10 years, and I had a really good… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #13

While the word count this week isn’t large, I still made strong forward progress with all the outlining and brainstorming and research. That I began the writing in the 1929 section at all is a win for me this week, since I am working with an almost entirely new cast of characters. Most of this… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #12

I had a pretty good Minicon this year. The two panels I was on were well attended and had both excellent panelists and thoughtful audiences. I played music three nights in a row, which was a little tough on my hands, but worth it. My reading was reasonably well attended and I sold a few… Continue reading Ghosts of the Places We Live Update #11 Plus Minicon Thoughts