Writing

Roll for Initiative… at a distance

I’ve been compiling the various resources and freebies that people are posting daily on the Interwebs as ways to combat the coronavirus isolation. One activity I sorely want to try in the coming weeks is delving back into some role playing games (RPGs)… and, in fact, it’s possible that might be an activity to do with my kids. So Paul Darvasi’s article for KQED is a treasure trove of ideas about how one can use…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry Writing

Science Fiction Tropes, Ranked (Barnes & Noble Edition)

I’ve posted about science fiction tropes before, but as we’re now deep into the Era of Social Distancing, at least some writing has got to happen, right? So here’s another list ranking tropes via Ross Johnson for Barnes & Noble. I might quibble with the ranking of the top 5 (dystopian governments and time travel would be my 2 and 1 respectively), but everything on the list should give you a knowing nod or a…

Continue reading

Producing Rants Raves Reviews Site Update Various and Sundry Writing

Wouldja Believe? It’s a Five-Year Blogiversary!

Back on March 1st, 2015, I re-entered the web world with a personal website, something I really hadn’t had since the 90s, which in Internet terms is ancient history. Perhaps because March 1st doesn’t correspond with any other anniversaries in my life, I keep on meaning to do an annual retrospective about posts and such on the blog, but keep on forgetting. This year, however, I made sure to set a reminder for myself. As…

Continue reading

Writing

A Day in the Life of a Writer in the Business

I’m always interested in different people’s writing processes, including how they balance non-writing. Okay, I should probably specify productive non-writing. It’s pretty easy to procrastinate and not write. Novelist Vincent Zandri has an interesting approach that I’ve heard from other writers in how they approach the business of writing by being very definite about both the writing part and the business part. I appreciate the level of detail.

Continue reading

Writing

Credit Where Credit is Due: Batman Edition

Still thinking of the Oscars this week and I came across this piece in Forbes which mentions a small coup in terms of credits. You see, for the longest time, the iconic character of Batman was credited pretty much only to Bob Kane, when in fact, that particular caped crusader was not a solo act. In fact, there’s a Bill Finger award that has been established specifically to recognize comic book writers whose work in…

Continue reading

Writing

Barry Lyga on Writing What You Know (kinda)

I’ve been musing on the old –and to my mind, inaccurate– advice to “write what you know” and I’ve been meaning to write a post about it. But in the meantime –and perhaps for the better– how about I just link to a piece by novelist (and occasional Tohubohu screenwriter) Barry Lyga? There’s a whole lot of nuggets in here, but I won’t spoil them for you. Suffice to say I agree with a lot…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry Writing

Classics per Checkout: the New York Public Library’s List

The New York Public Library (NYPL) released a list of its most checked out books in its 125 year history (it was founded in 1895). Coming from a family that includes librarians, archivists, and avid history readers, this was delightful news. I learned about it as the NPR story covering it was shared widely among my social media channels. One curious note in the NYPL release: an honorable mention for Goodnight Moon, which I suppose…

Continue reading

Producing Writing

2019 By the Indie Numbers

I’ve mentioned author and indie published Russell Nohelty a couple times on the blog, both specifically about his book on selling your work and in his detailing his efforts to build his business. So, as a bit of follow-up, all last year he did a monthly income and expense report about his business, often detailing what worked and what didn’t, what his predictions were, and what the basis of those predictions was. It was wonderfully…

Continue reading