Sep 15Not the Dresden Files for a ReasonMagic and Music — Know what really grates my gills? All those people who make something that’s exactly like everything else and then they talk at you with long, beery breaths to explain that, no, but this is actually totally different! And here’s the Wikipedia spiral I wrote to explain how! I have, for…Writing Life4 min readWriting Life4 min read
Sep 8Nova by Samuel R. DelaneyWrong hero. Too few drugs. — This dude wants to be Jack Kerouac. This book’ll take you on a journey. Not the enlightening, transcendent rise that Delaney wants it to be, but that’s mainly due to my mistake of not taking all the drugs that would probably fill in the gaps in the narrative. Because Delaney…Review2 min readReview2 min read
Sep 1Writing advice to my twelve-year-old self.Hey, kid, no one will ask for that story. — I’m getting to that stage in life where my childhood friends are doing cool jobs. We all reach this stage, I think. For me, a lot of my friends seem to have grown into being teachers. I’m not sure why exactly. …Writing Tips3 min readWriting Tips3 min read
Aug 25The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry PournelleAh — ambition. That’s why I don’t like it. — My sister wanted to breed dogs. She doesn’t like the personalities of most dogs, though, and she’s allergic to dog hair. Her solution: the newdle. Or the poofoundland. Depends on your preference. Cross a poodle with a newfoundland and you might get the ideal dog for someone like my sister…Books4 min readBooks4 min read
Aug 18The Ingredients of StoriesAnd how to shop for them — It’d be cool if you could shop for the ingredients of stories, wouldn’t it? Like, head over to the antique store with a vague sense of “I’m going to write something!” And leave with all the elements you need in order to make that happen. That would be brilliant. Thing…Writing Tips3 min readWriting Tips3 min read
Aug 16Foundation and Empire by Isaac AsimovHalf as clever as it should be. — Foundation and Empire tells the story of what happens when a God complex clashes with severe headaches. A person who amounts in the books a folk hero in the form of Hari Seldon has decided that he knows exactly how to direct the next thousand years in order to shorten…Books2 min readBooks2 min read
Aug 12Slan by A.E. Van VogtPretty sure it’s racist. — Slan is the story of Übermensch Jommy Cross and his adventure in trying to achieve world peace through the cunning use of demonstrating superior genetics and the precise application of stealing free will through psychic superpowers. It’s cool, though. Jommy only takes free will from people who would have wasted…Book Review2 min readBook Review2 min read
Aug 9Why You Should Set Reading GoalsWhat am I reading right now? I will tell you. — Life is too short to read anything except what you want to read. That said, how do you decide what to read? That’s a serious question. How do you decide what to read? We all have different decision-making criteria. I like hearing the preachy, pushy excuses people assign to their…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Apr 14Marketing (i.e., catnip) for Writers (i.e., dummies)Marketing makes as much sense as a staircase into a blank wall. Writers are contradictory animals. We’re shy, but we also want our stories to get attention. There’s a psychotic break there somewhere. Not sure exactly how that works, but it does. We want to tell stories to people. The…Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
Dec 23, 2021Member-onlyDead Mentors: Franz Kafka — no explanations neededThe mythical suffering artist and which god your body is a temple to depends on lifestyle — The trouble is that the image of the lonely writer is a little bit of a lie. When we write, none of us write in isolation. Not quite. We’re all joining an active conversation as old as literacy itself. By having an opinion and putting it out there, you join…Mentor4 min readMentor4 min read
