Writing

One Week in Rochester

To kick off this week, where I’m fitting in writing every moment I reasonably can, I’m thinking of an article I read last year, knowing I’d want to share it on the blog at some point. It’s a little quiet memoir of a piece, about a young student shepherding a visiting writer about the city of Rochester, New York. Is Alison Smith’s piece about wandering about town with Ursula Le Guin writing motivation? Maybe. Maybe…

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Writing

Where’s Mister Electrico? A Ray Bradbury Mystery

I’ve been a fan of writer Ray Bradbury since reading The Martian Chronicles and listening to Bradbury 13, a fantastic series that did audio fiction adaptations of, well, 13 short stories (the latter is still an inspiration for our work with Jabber Audio). So when Bradbury passed in 2012, I read the various obituaries and remembrances and several mentioned an anecdote Bradbury had told about an encounter with a magician in the 1930s. It’s a…

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Writing

“I’m more of an Idea Bot”

I continue to talk to people online and offline about machine learning and the current zeal for AI doing creative work and one of the writers, Chuck Wendig, who I linked to last month (and who, unsurprisingly, does not find AI-authored writing as a wave of the future to be surfed). One of his posts from last week drills down to one of the reasons I find the AI creativity craze so annoying: the fact…

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Writing

HarperCollins Strike Reaches Tentative Agreement

Hey, it’s not just future TV I’m interested in, I find all sorts of creative industries of interest. In this case, one of the “big five” publishers, HarperCollins, recently reached a tentative agreement with its union. So right about now, you might be asking: Well, to learn more, you can check out: It’ll be interesting to see what changes this has on the other publishers in the “Big Five.”

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Writing

Writer Rates Fixed in Amber?

After contributing a horror short story to an anthology last Fall, I’ve been researching what the current markets are like and came across this piece by longtime writer (and longtime writer of the business of writing) Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Now, referencing the Stanford Marshmallow Experiments might make this interesting alone, but the real reward is staying with the piece as she goes through plenty of historical numbers of what writers have been paid and, well,…

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Writing

Bradbury on Starting Writing, Keeping Writing, and Love

I grew up reading Ray Bradbury stories and loved it when 13 of his short stories were adapted for radio (because, you know, I’m into that sort of thing). So, naturally, I’ve checked out some interviews and lectures where he talks about writing and his thoughts on it. This hour-long lecture comes from when Bradbury was around 80, so it should come as no surprise if your curmudgeon detector goes off. However, other videos can…

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Producing Various and Sundry Writing

Public Domain Day, 2023 Addendum

I have a new source to look for regarding Public Domain Day every January… that is assuming Steve Shives returns for more merriment next year. I’ve already enjoyed his Star Trek commentaries and now I learn how much of a classic film buff he is — and he doesn’t mind singing. Truly, he contains multitudes. His phrasing is occasionally delightfully NSFW at moments, so be warned for when you watch.

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Rants Voiceover Writing

Thoughts on the “A.I. is Inevitable” Bandwagon

What with starting the year off with a Public Domain post, I’ll continue in the intellectual property realm with a topic currently being discussed and debated mightily amongst indie artists and writers I know: how artificial intelligence (aka “A.I.”) is starting to do creative jobs. Author Chuck Wendig has some choice NSFW words on this matter. I especially appreciate him tackling the fact that the existence of technology neither means its inevitability nor that it…

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Producing Various and Sundry Writing

Public Domain Day, 2023

I plan to do posts on public domain every year and I really should have last January for this clip alone, but the year got away from me early. Now that was last year, and most of you already know about the Winnie the Pooh horror movie soon to be out in the world? So what’s in store for 2023 and all the goodies from 1927 now in the public domain in the U.S.? As…

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