Via B^2: Philip Sandifer is a graduate student in U. Fla’s English program, and keeps a personal creative writing journal called “Pulp Decameron,” where he posts very short stories in the styles of various pulp genres. The stories are released under a Creative Commons license. One story, I am Ready to Serve My Country, is […]
For S-C (satori caught by Akismet in comment spam): Iron necessity.- Iron necessity is a thing which has been found, in the course of history, to be neither iron nor necessary. Once the decision has been made, close your ear even to the best counter argument: sign of a strong character. Thus an occasional will […]
Via B^2: “…how books make (or don’t) money…” At the meetings, people shake their heads and sigh, but you are an obnoxious editor who loves your book. You bother people enough until your publisher gives you a full page 4/c (four color — aka full color) ad in Romantic Times BookClub Magazine, and puts four […]
I don’t know how long I’ve had this little text document but I’ve found it indispensible over the years. “George Orwell’s Six Rules”: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is […]
Draft #2 is under way. I spent the better part of the weekend taking the notes that I made during my read-through of the first draft and applying them to the text. Sixteen chapters (roughly 80 pages, or 18,670 words) into it and it’s feeling pretty solid. Some areas have received the thorough re-working that […]
“Fall Down Six Times” is a series of short-shorts by Ran Prieur that are essentially meditations on apocalyptic collapses. Or a “Ridiculous Best Case Scenario”. Most of these have elements that remind me of conversations I’ve had recently with friends about “what we’ll do when the economy collapses.” It’s reassuring that I’m not the only […]
Firefox updated to Universal Binary but still basically sucks. (Seriously. Stick with Camino.) Gruber points out the obvious again. This time about Google’s calendar app. This time making sure to insert the jab about spelling and grammar. Ben points out that Mainers are legally permitted to be more verbose. No wonder I want to move […]
Brief personal update… Finally (!!!) getting back on the exercise horse after the little foot ouchie from snowboarding in February. A week of mild pain cannot translate in six weeks of being lazy. That’s just silly. In other news, A. finally moved out of her Hanover, NH place and we’re back to living together full […]
A couple weeks ago, I posted the first 503 words of my story. For anyone interested in another taste (from chapter two): When the call came in, I was flat on my back, floating in a warm, viscous solution. I was defined by relaxation and perfectly content to dwell on the visions of sugared fullerenes […]
What’s up with the recent rash of zombie dreams, eh? Where has that come from? Anyway, with March over, it’s time to start on the revisions on my novel. I took a dive into it last night, plowing through some of the early chapters, my pen scribbling wildly in the margins. The whole time I’d […]