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.
Who Are You? A Writer's Take writerunboxed.com/2026/01/22/w...
Who Are You? A Writer’s Take
Who are you? When you meet someone new, how do you answer this question? You might start with your name, but after that, how do you describe yourself to a stranger? What aspects of yourself do you …
writerunboxed.com
January 22, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Who Are You? A Writer's Take writerunboxed.com/2026/01/22/w...
Listen Like a Writer: What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Story writerunboxed.com/2026/01/21/l...
Listen Like a Writer: What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Story
Therese here to officially introduce our newest regular Writer Unboxed contributor, Alison Hammer! Alison has published two novels under her own name, and six as half of the popular writing duo kno…
writerunboxed.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Listen Like a Writer: What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Story writerunboxed.com/2026/01/21/l...
How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, by Rachel Barr: #BookReview. stuartaken.net/2026/01/21/h...
How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, by Rachel Barr: #BookReview.
Subtitled ‘A neuroscientist’s guide to a healthier, happier life’, this book is just that. An extraordinary piece of work that, read well and applied to everyday life could be a life-changer for yo…
stuartaken.net
January 21, 2026 at 4:18 PM
How To Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, by Rachel Barr: #BookReview. stuartaken.net/2026/01/21/h...
How Unnecessary Dialogue Tags Can Create Redundancies kathysteinemann.com/Musings/redu...
How Unnecessary Dialogue Tags Can Create Redundancies
You might not realize why a certain passage in your writing doesn’t read quite exactly the way you intend it to read. Your brilliantly crafted, eloquent words are there, but the writing seems to dr…
kathysteinemann.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:11 PM
How Unnecessary Dialogue Tags Can Create Redundancies kathysteinemann.com/Musings/redu...
Pace and Tempo writerunboxed.com/2026/01/20/p...
Pace and Tempo
This morning, I’m back at the keyboard again, talking about what writers can learn about pace from J. S. Bach. I had originally intended to play through my example piece — the Sinfon…
writerunboxed.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Pace and Tempo writerunboxed.com/2026/01/20/p...
The Sum of Our Longings writerunboxed.com/2026/01/19/t...
The Sum of Our Longings
Come to me in my dreams, and then By day I shall be well again! For so the night will more than pay The hopeless longing of the day. From Longing by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) Several years ago, I …
writerunboxed.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:18 PM
The Sum of Our Longings writerunboxed.com/2026/01/19/t...
F.R.I.G.H.T. - A Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/17/f...
F.R.I.G.H.T. – A Short Story
F.R.I.G.H.T. – A short Story for you entertainment: F.R.I.G.H.T. Foster sneered at the novel in front of him. ‘Writers! Shoot the bloody lot if I had my way.’ He leered at the scientist perch…
stuartaken.net
January 17, 2026 at 4:56 PM
F.R.I.G.H.T. - A Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/17/f...
What Else? writerunboxed.com/2026/01/16/w...
What Else?
A few days ago my journaling prompt* was, CURSED DAYS, which was, in turn, based on a prompt from Molly Prentiss called WHAT ELSE? Both prompt titles felt way too on the nose for the state of thing…
writerunboxed.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:06 PM
What Else? writerunboxed.com/2026/01/16/w...
Flog a Pro: Would You Turn the First Page of this Bestseller? writerunboxed.com/2026/01/15/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
January 15, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Flog a Pro: Would You Turn the First Page of this Bestseller? writerunboxed.com/2026/01/15/f...
Hope is the Thing With Thorns: A New Year’s Reflection writerunboxed.com/2026/01/14/h...
Hope is the Thing With Thorns: A New Year’s Reflection
“Hope’ is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the song without the tune – And never stops – at all – —Emily Dickinson On the way to a writin…
writerunboxed.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Hope is the Thing With Thorns: A New Year’s Reflection writerunboxed.com/2026/01/14/h...
Author Up Close: Terra Weiss – A Good Problem to Have writerunboxed.com/2026/01/13/a...
Author Up Close: Terra Weiss – A Good Problem to Have
Last February, I interviewed friend, critique partner, and writer, Terra Weiss. In that interview, which you can read here, Terra was six books deep into a growing self-publishing career and was (a…
writerunboxed.com
January 13, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Author Up Close: Terra Weiss – A Good Problem to Have writerunboxed.com/2026/01/13/a...
‘The Dark Downward and Vegetating Kingdom’ writerunboxed.com/2026/01/12/t...
‘The Dark Downward and Vegetating Kingdom’
We have barely started 2026, yet the chaos and violence could already fill an entire year. Already I have heard half a dozen versions of the line from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian…
writerunboxed.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:20 PM
‘The Dark Downward and Vegetating Kingdom’ writerunboxed.com/2026/01/12/t...
Take Five Interview: Densie Webb and WHERE YOUR HEART BELONGS writerunboxed.com/2026/01/11/t...
Take Five Interview: Densie Webb and WHERE YOUR HEART BELONGS
We are thrilled to bring you a sneak peek at the new book from WU contributor Densie Webb. WHERE YOUR HEART BELONGS is out now, and looks like the perfect literary getaway to start the new year. It…
writerunboxed.com
January 11, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Take Five Interview: Densie Webb and WHERE YOUR HEART BELONGS writerunboxed.com/2026/01/11/t...
Open with panache and also caution – a simple mistake with misdirection that might turn readers off nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2026/01/11/o...
Open with panache and also caution – a simple mistake with misdirection that might turn readers off
We always want to grab the reader at the start of a story. But are we grabbing them with the right things? Especially if we’re using misdirection. When does misdirection (which is good) become misr…
nailyournovel.wordpress.com
January 11, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Open with panache and also caution – a simple mistake with misdirection that might turn readers off nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2026/01/11/o...
A Land Despoiled; a Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/10/a...
A Land Despoiled; a Short Story
A Land Despoiled, a short story for you. This one would be labelled ‘Sci-Fi’ or possibly ‘Dystopian fiction’, but I see it as the fruit of my imagination on passing through …
stuartaken.net
January 11, 2026 at 5:00 AM
A Land Despoiled; a Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/10/a...
When Events Overtake What You Intended to Post writerunboxed.com/2026/01/09/w...
When Events Overtake What You Intended to Post
Due to a return from overseas earlier this week, resulting in jet lag-induced insomnia, exacerbating a miserable head cold, I was unable to begin drafting my post for today with any seriousness unt…
writerunboxed.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
When Events Overtake What You Intended to Post writerunboxed.com/2026/01/09/w...
Read Your Way to the Light writerunboxed.com/2026/01/08/r...
Read Your Way to the Light
Winter is the perfect time to stay in and read a book—and that’s not just due to the long dark nights and frigid temps. Safe at home, I can avoid the nasty strains of communicable disease on …
writerunboxed.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Read Your Way to the Light writerunboxed.com/2026/01/08/r...
The Sentence and the Story: A New Year’s Fable writerunboxed.com/2026/01/07/t...
The Sentence and the Story: A New Year’s Fable
The Sentence The sentence sat, unmoving. The sentence was dissatisfied. The sentence knew that it had untapped potential, but wasn’t using it. The sentence longed to be metaphorical but it was feel…
writerunboxed.com
January 7, 2026 at 4:22 PM
The Sentence and the Story: A New Year’s Fable writerunboxed.com/2026/01/07/t...
Artificial Infatuation: Story Prompt for Writers #7 kathysteinemann.com/Musings/stor...
Artificial Infatuation: Story Prompt for Writers #7
Imagine a real-life incident so surprising, it gives new meaning to Lord Byron’s and Mark Twain’s observations that truth is stranger than fiction. This story prompt will leave you wondering if you…
kathysteinemann.com
January 7, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Artificial Infatuation: Story Prompt for Writers #7 kathysteinemann.com/Musings/stor...
"Repair Shop" Your Manuscript writerunboxed.com/2026/01/06/w...
“Repair Shop” Your Manuscript
This past Writer Unboxed UnConference was my favorite yet, even though I felt the promise of a cold in my throat on the trip home from Santa Fe. Once home, I tunneled under a blanket with a cuppa t…
writerunboxed.com
January 6, 2026 at 5:21 PM
"Repair Shop" Your Manuscript writerunboxed.com/2026/01/06/w...
Becoming a New Writer in the New Year writerunboxed.com/2026/01/05/b...
Becoming a New Writer in the New Year
Just a few days into January, you may already be tired of the idea of resolutions. There’s nothing special about January, really, if resolving’s what you want to do: you can vow to chan…
writerunboxed.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Becoming a New Writer in the New Year writerunboxed.com/2026/01/05/b...
Take Five Interview: Yasmin Angoe and BEHIND THESE FOUR WALLS writerunboxed.com/2026/01/04/t...
Take Five Interview: Yasmin Angoe and BEHIND THESE FOUR WALLS
Happy New Year, WU! For our first T5 of the year, we’re very excited to bring you an inside look at the recently released new novel from WU contributor and #1 Amazon bestselling author Yasmin…
writerunboxed.com
January 4, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Take Five Interview: Yasmin Angoe and BEHIND THESE FOUR WALLS writerunboxed.com/2026/01/04/t...
A Perfect Solution: A Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/03/a...
A Perfect Solution: A Short Story
A pool in a Greek Hotel. Here’s the next short story in my intention to give you one each week for the whole of 2026. I have a couple of anthologies of short stories, too, for those who love …
stuartaken.net
January 3, 2026 at 8:30 PM
A Perfect Solution: A Short Story stuartaken.net/2026/01/03/a...
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...