the-anti-racist-writing-workshop
victoria-creative-writing-group
oh-no-this-monster-is-going-to-be-over-100k
southern-california-writers-conference
long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul
which-country-has-the-worlds-best-healthcare
indian-world-of-george-washington
one-sentence-at-a-time-means-progress
what-to-watch-while-youre-stuck-at-home
physical-motion-is-mental-lotion
ravenclaw-gonna-ravenclaw-voting
writing-new-scenes-when-i-should-be-just-editing
dear-god-i-just-cant-stop-can-i
no-one-puts-writer-in-a-corner
why-doesnt-editing-feel-like-it-counts
trying-to-trick-myself-into-working
long-way-to-small-angry-planet
oh-no-i-might-be-working-on-the-wrong-one
my-life-as-a-white-trash-zombie
ye-gods-it-really-is-better-after-editing
shambling-guide-to-new-york-city
seven-more-languages-in-seven-weeks
why-does-my-todo-list-keep-growing
taking-time-off-is-boring-as-frak
secret-history-of-wonder-woman
yes-i-outlined-but-im-still-a-pantser
how-much-is-left-i-have-no-idea
fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them
just-one-more-week-november-really
halfway-through-and-already-far-behind
back-to-work-theres-much-to-do
minority-representation-in-fiction
thank-the-gods-its-more-than-just-a-short-story
is-this-multitasking-am-i-doing-it-right
dipping-my-toes-into-a-story-before-diving-into-the-novel
ye-gods-now-ive-got-to-send-it-out
a-slimmed-down-book-is-a-stronger-book
cut-it-all-and-let-the-editor-sort-em-out
ye-gods-why-is-this-draft-so-bad
wish-id-left-better-notes-for-myself
time-to-fix-everything-i-broke
writing-a-comic-but-not-really
dear-god-what-have-i-gotten-myself-into
idle-hands-need-something-to-type
missed-the-deadline-but-wont-miss-the-mark
just-keep-writing-just-keep-writing
it-may-be-terrible-but-its-mine-dammit
i-am-afraid-and-yet-i-must-write
set-myself-a-deadline-now-its-real
screw-this-head-cold-im-writing
please-dont-let-me-infodump-here
dont-look-down-just-keep-moving
one-week-off-and-i-found-a-plot-hole
tore-up-my-outline-and-now-i-know-what-to-do
the-characters-solved-it-but-i-get-the-credit
good-morning-your-outline-is-on-fire
fiction-masquerading-as-non-fiction
updating-the-map-to-match-new-territory
my-house-is-falling-apart-and-yet-i-must-write
no-office-but-the-one-in-my-head
pantsing-means-loose-threads-can-come-unraveled
writing-in-my-own-world-so-the-real-one-doesnt-bother-me
my-fear-of-writers-block-is-itself-a-block
slow-progress-is-better-than-none
someone-else-liked-it-maybe-its-not-terrible
2023-03-25: Just found out the Surrey International Writers' Conference is opening up their annual Writing …
2023-03-25: An Early Spring Hike Some shots from a hike I took last week, when we got our first peek at sunny spring weather here in …
2023-03-25: No, Bill C-18 Will Not End the Open Web Seeing a lot of fear-mongering on Canada’s Bill C-18, which will require companies like Google and …
2023-03-18: And that’s the first round of novel edits done! ✍️ 🎉 Going to celebrate by getting out for a …
2023-03-17: tfw you introduce yourself for the first time with “last year i immigrated to canada” 😊🇨🇦
2023-03-17: Keeping Score: 17 March 2023 Happy St Patrick’s Day! To celebrate, here’s a shot I took while on a walk yesterday, of a tree that …
2023-03-16: You know you’re finally starting to assimilate to a place when you can spot unmarked police cars 😬
2023-03-15: Here’s the best printer in 2023: the Brother laser printer that everyone has. Stop thinking about it …
2023-03-14: Just one chapter in the novel edited today. But still. That’s one less to edit tomorrow.
2023-03-13: Why, yes, I did hang a lampshade on a massive plot hole in the novel today. But I got the …
2023-03-06: Ah, Monday. You’d thought you’d defeated me, but then I came back and did a full …
2023-03-03: Keeping Score: 3 March 2023 Happy Friday! It’s the end of my first full week at the new job. It’s also the first week where I’ve …
2023-03-02: Ye gods! Just one chapter edited tonight, but it was a doozy. Needed to rework most of the action, …
2023-02-28: Two more novel chapters edited after dinner tonight. Steady as she goes. 🚂
2023-02-28: Woke up to snow!
2023-02-27: Trying to do novel edits after work was like pushing a boulder uphill today. But I got another …
2023-02-25: Oof. Ten more novel chapters edited; another big push. 💪 😅
2023-02-23: Wow, I hadn’t heard anything about this: Toronto recently used an AI tool to predict when a …
2023-02-22: In case you missed it, Turkey got hit by two more earthquakes in the same region that was struck …
2023-02-21: Ten whole chapters edited today! It’s amazing what you can do with an extra day off 😅
2023-02-20: …and that’s another five chapters edited in the novel 🎉 Time to celebrate with some …
2023-02-20: The Gap between Approval and Confirmation Happy Family Day! Hope you’re getting to spend it with your loved ones. Now that the dust has …
2023-02-17: Keeping Score: 17 February 2023 Started the new job this week! Which means I’m suddenly wondering how in the world I ever had time …
2023-02-13: Surviving Winter in Victoria The title of this post is going to crack up anyone that lives somewhere with a “real winter,” like …
2023-02-10: Keeping Score: 10 February 2023 As you can imagine from my last post (and lack of posting through Nov, Dec, or Jan), absolutely …
2023-02-06: Je suis arrivé au Canada Hey, there! Wait, pardon me one second… blows dust off the blog coughs That’s better. clears throat …
2022-11-04: Keeping Score: 4 November 2022 So I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. “But,” I hear you say, “you’re already studying for the TCF …
2022-10-31: Getting Invited to the Party Big news from last week: They approved my application for the British Columbia Provincial Nomination …
2022-09-30: Truth and Reconciliation It’s Truth and Reconciliation Day today, in Canada. A new holiday, for an old injustice. Not that …
2022-09-09: Keeping Score: 9 September 2022 Finished typing up the first draft of the new story over the long weekend. Even found time to create …
2022-09-05: Happy Labour Day! Taking the day off today. Thinking of going down to walk the Government House grounds, which should …
2022-09-02: Keeping Score: 2 September 2022 Draft is done! Long live the draft! Finished the first, very messy, draft of the new short story …
2022-08-29: Le Canada Sans Voiture So this week it’ll be five months since I moved to Victoria. Five months! It’s hard to believe. Most …
2022-08-26: Keeping Score: 26 August 2022 Ever write a scene, and immediately regret it? This week I’ve been focusing on finishing one, just …
2022-08-22: I Found Canadian Healthcare! Finally. After waiting sixty days for my Personal Health Number to arrive (and be valid), then …
2022-08-12: Keeping Score: 12 August 2022 Earlier this week I decided to take a survey of what stage my various stories are, since I lost …
2022-08-08: Back in the CSSR* After spending just one week in the States, it's good to be back in Canada. I literally felt the …
2022-07-29: Keeping Score: 29 July 2022 Yesterday was my first time fiction writing since I got sick. That's three weeks of not making any …
2022-07-25: Canadian Covid Haven't posted in the last two weeks, because I finally caught Covid-19 (or it finally caught up …
2022-07-08: Keeping Score: 8 July 2022 This week I've mostly been focused on typing up the mix of notes, scenes, and outline from my …
2022-07-04: Three Things I Loved About My First Canada Day As someone who grew up in the States, I'm used to celebrating July 4th, but I'm not used to really …
2022-07-01: Keeping Score: 1 July 2022 I think my writing brain is telling me to move on from the short stories. I've kept up with the …
2022-06-27: Summer Arrives in BC It's too damn hot to want to do anything, really. Just when you think you've adjusted, some internal …
2022-06-24: Keeping Score: 24 June 2022 I've been reading Craft in the Real World and The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, two books that both …
2022-06-20: Going Native So I've decided to apply for permanent residence here in Canada. I know, many people apply for PR …
2022-06-17: Keeping Score: 17 June 2022 Gender-flipping one of the characters in my new short story turns out to be the best decision I …
2022-06-13: Three Things I Love About Living in Victoria When I made the move from San Diego up to Victoria, BC, I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd never been …
2022-06-10: Keeping Score: 10 June 2022 Started the first draft of the new horror story this week, but just barely. Managed to bang out a …
2022-06-06: Three Things You Should Do Immediately After Moving to Canada Getting to Canada -- securing my work permit, opening a bank account, finding an apartment -- turned …
2022-06-03: Keeping Score: 3 June 2022 This week I finally started submitting stories to markets again. I've been holding off, because of …
2022-05-30: Three Things They Don’t Tell You about Banking in Canada So last week I tried to pay a bill from a US company using my Canadian accounts. Big mistake. Huge. …
2022-05-27: Keeping Score: May 27, 2022 Steady progress this week. I’ve set a reminder to write, every day, and I force myself to do it. …
2022-05-23: You Can’t Ship That to Canada! I have a love-hate relationship with Fedex. On the love side, when I was searching for the best way …
2022-05-20: Keeping Score: 20 May 2022 Writing slowed this week, but didn’t stop. I got through “Draft 1.5” of the new short story, which …
2022-05-17: Why Victoria? Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal...These are the big, bustling, Canadian cities that most folks have …
2022-05-13: Keeping Score: 13 May 2022 I’ve written a new short story! Last Saturday I turned a corner, mood-wise. After not being able to …
2022-05-09: Three Things They Don’t Tell You About Moving to Canada It’s taken six months, but I’m finally here, in Canada, for the long term. Immigrating, even from …
2022-05-06: Keeping Score: 6 May 2022 Time to start these up again, as well. Other than Monday’s blog post, though, I haven’t written …
2022-05-02: Greetings from Canada! Wow, it's been -- six months? -- since I posted anything here. That's the longest gap in years, …
2021-11-05: The Great Pottery Throw Down I've fallen in love with the Great Pottery Throw Down. It's exactly what it sounds like: a …
2021-11-03: Dune: Part One There's a moment in Jodorowsky's Dune where the titular director, discussing how Hollywood …
2021-11-01: Short Book Reviews: October 2021 It's been a while since I've done one of these, hasn't it? checks calendar winces Way …
2021-10-22: Keeping Score: October 22, 2021 I've finally made it to the other side of my writer's block. I'm back to working on the novel, …
2021-10-08: Keeping Score: October 8, 2021 I'm...well, I'm blocked. Written perhaps 300 words on the novel in the last two weeks. No work on …
2021-09-24: Keeping Score: September 24, 2021 Zero words written on the novel this week. The little parts I was writing last week, based on the …
2021-09-17: Keeping Score: September 17, 2021 Did I say I'd spend time outlining last weekend? How naive I was! No, last weekend was all house …
2021-09-10: Keeping Score: September 10, 2021 Steady progress on the novel this week, even though the plot of this section is getting away from …
2021-09-03: Keeping Score: September 3, 2021 Novel broke through 60,000 words this week! I'm back to working on it every day, so far. Picked up …
2021-08-27: Keeping Score: August 27, 2021 Back to work this week, both day-job and writing. As expected, it's been hard to get back into the …
2021-08-20: Keeping Score: August 20, 2021 Not much to update this week. I've taken the week off from writing altogether, in order to make our …
2021-08-13: Keeping Score: August 13, 2021 Wife and I are doing a bit of stay-cation now that she's back from Arkansas, and thank goodness. …
2021-08-09: Short Book Reviews: July 2021 My wife's been out of town most of this past month (helping her mother recover from cataract …
2021-08-06: Keeping Score: August 6, 2021 I've not written a single word for the novel, this week. It's been a mad scramble to get everything …
2021-07-30: Keeping Score: July 30, 2021 One short story down, three to go. I managed to get the final edits done last weekend for one of the …
2021-07-23: Keeping Score: July 23, 2021 Novel's hit 57,665 words! I've finally had a week where I've hit my word goal every day (so far). …
2021-07-16: Keeping Score: July 16, 2021 I'm back to something of a normal writing schedule, finally. I'm not always getting my writing done …
2021-07-09: Keeping Score: July 9, 2021 This week has been a bad one for writing. It started out well enough, mind you. Got a blog post …
2021-07-06: Short Book Reviews: June 2021 The year is already half over? And California's re-opening while vaccination rates are slowing and …
2021-07-02: Keeping Score: July 2, 2021 Novel’s crossed 54,000 words! I’m back to writing it in a scatter-shot way. Skipping up and down a …
2021-06-25: Keeping Score: June 25, 2021 Screw it, I'm putting more magic in my fantasy novel. Up to this point I've been careful to keep it …
2021-06-18: Juneteenth 2021 It is so sadly, quintessentially, American, for every Republican in the Senate to vote for the new …
2021-06-14: What is a Citizen, Anyway? I've recently realized there's a large gap in my education: I don't know how to be a citizen. I know …
2021-06-11: Keeping Score: June 11, 2021 Got another short story rejection today. This one was personal, at least; not a form letter, but a …
2021-06-04: Keeping Score: June 4, 2021 I finished the eternal section! Finally laid down all the connective text it needed. Final word …
2021-05-31: Short Book Reviews: May 2021 Took a break from my Stephen King read-a-thon to dive into some non-fiction this month. As always, …
2021-05-28: Keeping Score: May 28, 2021 So I didn't quit. Not this week, at least :) Only 686 words written so far, though, so I'll need to …
2021-05-21: Keeping Score: May 21, 2021 It's been a rough week for my writing. The company I work for has had a series of cross-company …
2021-05-14: Keeping Score: May 14, 2021 I finished the rough draft of the short story! It topped out at 5,157 words, which is a little …
2021-05-07: Keeping Score: May 7, 2021 In the spirit of being more flexible, I decided to take a break from the novel this week. Instead, …
2021-05-03: Short Book Reviews: April 2021 Fewer books read this month. Between turning 42 and getting both doses of the vaccine, I've been …
2021-04-30: Keeping Score: April 30, 2021 Novel's at 44,600 words! I'm still wrapping up the section I've been working on for weeks now, …
2021-04-23: Keeping Score: April 23, 2021 Found this article in the New York Times (I know) that rather perfectly captures where I've been, …
2021-04-16: Keeping Score: April 16, 2021 I got my second shot! Wasn't quite as easy as getting my first. Yesterday was the first day of …
2021-04-12: 1990s Album Covers: B&W, Please, and Don't Forget the Fire Been on a bit of a nostalgia trip recently -- no connection to turning 42, I'm sure -- and I noticed …
2021-04-09: Keeping Score: April 9, 2021 Writing this past week has been...well, difficult is too small a word for it. When my motivation for …
2021-04-07: 42 "What's wrong with you?" "I don't know!" There are lots of ways to find out you're depressed. For …
2021-04-05: Short Book Reviews: March 2021 Ok, I didn't get this posted in time for the end of March, but better late then never, eh? …
2021-04-02: Keeping Score: April 2, 2021 I feel like I've been to a horror workshop this past week. It started with reading Tim Waggoner's …
2021-03-26: Keeping Score: March 26, 2021 Novel's at 38,160 words. The snippets I'm working on are starting to spill over into the next …
2021-03-19: Keeping Score: March 19, 2021 Ye gods, the Daylight Savings Time switch walloped me this week. It's like I was finally adapting to …
2021-03-12: Keeping Score: March 12, 2021 I don't think I'm good at coming up with story titles. Mine tend to end up either very much on the …
2021-03-05: Keeping Score: March 5, 2021 Novel's still chugging along, currently at 33,884 words. I've pushed through the first big scene, …
2021-03-01: Post-Game: Stephen Blackmoore's Critiquing 101 Class So this weekend I attended another online writing class, this one from author Stephen Blackmoore (of …
2021-02-26: Keeping Score: February 26, 2021 Novel's up to 32,300 words! It's been easier to write this week. My wife's recovered from her …
2021-02-24: Short Book Reviews: February 2021 With the new year, Biden settling into the White House, and the vaccines rolling out, my reading …
2021-02-22: Movie Rewrites: Iron Eagle My wife and I are only six years apart in age, and yet our childhood pop culture was completely …
2021-02-19: Keeping Score: February 19, 2021 Writing each day's words this week has been like extracting teeth using a slippy pair of old …
2021-02-15: President's Day, 2021 Coming in the midst of Black History Month, I can think of no better way to honor this President's …
2021-02-12: Keeping Score: February 12, 2021 This book may end up being much longer than I thought. It's currently at 29,122 words, which is …
2021-02-08: Post-Game: Writing Science Fiction in a Post-Colonial World So the Clarion West online workshop was...interesting. The instructor, Fabio Fernandes, seems like a …
2021-02-05: Keeping Score: February 5, 2021 I'm not sure I could keep doing this writing thing, without the support of my friends. Just this …
2021-02-03: Short Fiction Review: Apex Magazine Issue 121 Apex Magazine is back! Apex went on what looked like permanent hiatus while editor-in-chief Jason …
2021-02-01: Only a Year: A Thank You Letter to Our House My wife and I bought the house we're living in almost exactly one year ago. We closed (finished all …
2021-01-29: Keeping Score: January 29, 2021 'Tis the season of the writer's conference. Had the Apex Magazine 15-minute workshop on Monday, …
2021-01-27: No Spoiler Reviews: Cobra Kai Cobra Kai has no right to exist, let alone be good. It's a spin-off of a move franchise whose third …
2021-01-25: Post-Game: Apex Magazine's 15-Minute Writing Workshop Apex Magazine is back from hiatus! One of my favorite short fiction magazines for years, Apex has …
2021-01-22: Keeping Score: January 22, 2021 It feels good to have a competent President again. A President with some dignity, who doesn't spend …
2021-01-20: Biden to be Sworn in as 46th President of United States These past four years have been a waking nightmare. Every day, it's been a barrage of lies, …
2021-01-18: MLK Day 2021 I realized, this morning, that I'd never read Dr King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. So I found this …
2021-01-15: Keeping Score: January 15, 2021 What a week, eh? Trump's been impeached for a second time (finally). The insurrectionists who …
2021-01-13: The Mandalorian: Season 2 Review Ye gods, it has been hard for me to avoid spoilers for Mandalorian Season 2. Even though I …
2021-01-11: I Miss Those Old-Fashioned Family Arguments My family and I have disagreed on politics for a long time. I turned left even before going to …
2021-01-08: Keeping Score: January 8, 2021 Oof, 2021 started out well, didn't it? I mean even with the spike in Covid-19 patients, and the …
2021-01-06: The Mandalorian: Season One Rewatch In preparation for diving into Season Two, I've been rewatching The Mandalorian's first season. And …
2021-01-04: Writing Goals for 2021 Feels a little silly to be setting any goals for 2021, to be honest. If 2020 taught me anything, …
2021-01-01: Keeping Score: January 1, 2021 We made it to a new year! In the past, I've taken that for granted. One year rolled into the next, I …
2020-12-31: Good Bye and Good Riddance, 2020 When my wife and I moved into our new house back in February, we thought that would be the most …
2020-12-25: Keeping Score: December 25, 2020 Happy Holidays! I'm finally back in my office. All the house work we've had done for the last three …
2020-12-18: Keeping Score: December 18, 2020 Novel's at around 16,400 words. I haven't done today's writing session, though, so I should finish …
2020-12-11: Keeping Score: December 11, 2020 Novel crossed 15,000 words today! My pace has slowed since NaNoWriMo, but I'm still managing about …
2020-12-04: Keeping Score: December 4, 2020 So I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year. It wasn't even close. But I'm not quitting on the novel. I've …
2020-11-27: Keeping Score: November 27, 2020 Did I say I could write at least half a day this week, free from distraction? turns to self from …
2020-11-23: Radicals Disguised as Conservatives My wife and I are re-watching The West Wing for the first time since Trump took office. It's …
2020-11-20: Keeping Score: November 20, 2020 Slow but steady. I'm at a little more than 7,000 words on the new novel so far this month. Behind …
2020-11-13: Keeping Score: November 13, 2020 Work on the novel has been slow but steady this week. I’m not getting down more than a few hundred …
2020-11-08: Biden Defeats Trump You love to see it. Jesus, we actually fucking did it. We're kicking the Giant Orange Baby out of …
2020-11-06: Keeping Score: November 6, 2020 I thought writing during a pandemic was hard. Turns out, writing during a tight election where one …
2020-11-02: Please Vote The Washington Post has a comprehensive run-down of everything the Trump regime has broken over the …
2020-10-30: Keeping Score: October 30, 2020 So I found a cure for the distractions last week: Stop reading the news. I'm serious. Before last …
2020-10-23: Keeping Score: October 23, 2020 Distractions piling up this week. First, there's the upcoming election, which has my stomach in …
2020-10-16: Keeping Score: October 16, 2020 Did I say five new flash stories last week? At my current pace, I'll be lucky to finish one. …
2020-10-09: Keeping Score: October 9, 2020 It’s done! The edits are done! Well, this round of edits, anyway...There’ll be more, down the line. …
2020-10-05: Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire by Delilah S Dawson I turned the corner, and my soul left my body. My wife says I walked around slack-jawed, not …
2020-10-02: Keeping Score: October 2, 2020 I've been having incredibly vivid dreams. Dreams that fade from memory when I wake up. Parts of them …
2020-09-28: I Went Camping Again and All I Had was This T-Shirt Let's try this again, shall we? "Where's my backpack?" It's Friday evening. We've just unpacked the …
2020-09-25: Keeping Score: September 25, 2020 I can't believe Breonna Taylor's killers are going to walk free. I mean, I can believe it, in the …
2020-09-21: Good Economics for Hard Times, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo A frustrating book. One minute, it'll be knee-deep in the blinders and false-assumptions of …
2020-09-18: Keeping Score: September 18, 2020 I'm turning the editing corner, into the final third of the book. I'm a little nervous about this …
2020-09-14: Beware the Thirsty Bees: First Time Camping in Joshua Tree We went camping in Joshua Tree for the first time this weekend. My last camping trip was over thirty …
2020-09-11: Keeping Score: September 11, 2020 It struck me this morning that the pace at which I come up with new story ideas has slowed down. …
2020-09-07: The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant I'm ashamed to say I'm not sure I knew Dinah's name, before reading this. I knew parts of her story, …
2020-09-04: Keeping Score: September 4, 2020 Is it bad to enjoy reading your own book? I'm still working on the novel, still plugging away at …
2020-08-31: Foreign Affairs: September/October 2020 I've got subscriptions to half a dozen different magazines, most of whom I don't get through. So I'm …
2020-08-28: Keeping Score: August 28, 2020 Made it through the intro chapters of the novel! I'm past the inciting event now, and heading into …
2020-08-24: Predicting the Next President, by Allan J Lichtman Hope. It's a hard thing to come by, for me, when it comes to the federal government. The election of …
2020-08-21: Keeping Score: August 21, 2020 I seem to always discover new things about the story while I'm writing it. It shouldn't surprise me …
2020-08-17: The End of Policing, by Alex S. Vitale I've mentioned before that I've always been afraid of the police. Not that I have any negative …
2020-08-14: Keeping Score: August 14, 2020 I'm rather upset with past me. Finally dove into editing the novel this week. Stopped …
2020-08-10: Which Country Has the World's Best Health Care? by Ezekiel J Emanuel Today, the US healthcare system occupies a place very like US beer did in the 1990s. See back then, …
2020-08-07: Keeping Score: August 7, 2020 I need to get back to working on the novel. I've let it sit these past few weeks, untouched, while I …
2020-08-03: Are Job Degree Requirements Racist? Since reading Ibram X Kendi's How to be an Antiracist, I'm starting to re-examine certain policies …
2020-07-31: Keeping Score: July 31, 2020 I feel like I'm telling this story to myself, over and over again, with each outline. New details …
2020-07-24: Keeping Score: July 24, 2020 I've never written a short-story this way before. I'm coming at it more like a novel. I'm outlining, …
2020-07-17: Keeping Score: July 17, 2020 Started drafting a new short story this week. I'm taking a different approach, this time. For short …
2020-07-13: How to Fix: Fate of the Furious I love the Fast & Furious movies. Yes, even 2 Fast 2 Furious (Roman cracks me up). I'm not even …
2020-07-10: Keeping Score: July 10, 2020 Missed last week's Keeping Score, but for a good reason: I was wrapping up the second draft of the …
2020-07-08: How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram X Kendi Powerfully written. Kendi lays out a set of definitions for racism, racist, and antiracist, then …
2020-06-26: Keeping Score: June 26, 2020 It's been a struggle to write this week. My uncle -- who because of age and circumstances was more …
2020-06-24: What's Your Pronoun? by Dennis Baron This is turning into a month of listening, for me. After the controversy erupted over J.K. Rowling's …
2020-06-22: Defund the Police: A Skit (with apologies to Letterkenny) Daryl: About the protests the other day-- Wayne: Assholes with authority are assaulting folks for …
2020-06-19: Juneteenth Growing up in Texas, we didn't talk about Juneteenth in school. We talked about the Civil War, of …
2020-06-12: Keeping Score: June 12, 2020 This week, I've been chasing the dragon of a finished draft. I'm so close to being done with the …
2020-06-05: Keeping Score: June 5, 2020 How does one write, in times like these? I feel guilty for not being at the protests (my wife and I …
2020-06-01: No Justice No Peace George Floyd Breeona Taylor Sean Reed Ahmaud Aurbery Eric Garner Michael Brown Dontre Hamilton John …
2020-05-29: Keeping Score: May 29, 2020 Earlier this week, I was on a Zoom call with some fellow writers. We were discussing how our writing …
2020-05-25: Memorial Day 2020 Memorial Day is meant to honor those who fell in the service of their country. So today, I'd like to …
2020-05-22: Keeping Score: May 22, 2020 After two good weeks in a row, it was time for a rough one. Had to shift my schedule up by three …
2020-05-18: The Right Way to Do Wrong, by Harry Houdini Disappointingly, this is not the full original text. It's been trimmed down by almost half, and then …
2020-05-15: Keeping Score: May 15, 2020 Current writing streak: 64 days. Finally reached the part of the novel where I'm back to editing, …
2020-05-11: The Indian World of George Washington, by Colin G Calloway This is the kind of American history I wish they'd taught me in school. It's a story of intrigue, of …
2020-05-08: Keeping Score: May 8, 2020 The streak's alive! I've managed at least 30 minutes of writing for 57 days straight now. …
2020-05-06: Congress Should be Bigger Over in The Atlantic, David Litt argues that Congress should be much larger than it currently is: In …
2020-05-04: First Story Published in Latest Galaxy's Edge Magazine! It's here! The new issue of Galaxy's Edge is out, and along with stories by Joe Halderman and Robert …
2020-05-01: Keeping Score: May 1, 2020 Current writing streak: 50 days. 50 days! That's 50 consecutive days of working, bit by bit, on the …
2020-04-30: Quarantine Dreams I'm having trouble sleeping. I wake up multiple times in the night, thinking I've heard our dog bark …
2020-04-27: Spotlight on Local Author: Henry Herz Intro Henry Herz intimidates me. He's written and sold ten children's books, along with numerous …
2020-04-24: Keeping Score: April 24, 2020 This week has been...strange. I received the contract (and check!) in the mail for my first short …
2020-04-20: An Outline for The Boys, Season Two I haven't truly binged-watched a show in a long time. Yes, even with the epidemic, I'm more often …
2020-04-17: Keeping Score: April 17, 2020 Another week. I've kept the writing streak going; currently at 36 straight days. Managed to pick up …
2020-04-13: Review: Brydge Pro Keyboard I've tried both Logitech and Zagg's versions of the iPad keyboard/case combo before, and neither of …
2020-04-10: Keeping Score: April 10, 2020 Current writing streak: 29 days. Another week of forcing myself into the chair, every morning, for …
2020-04-06: 41 Weird to have a birthday during a pandemic. To have a day when I'm supposed to gather my friends …
2020-04-03: Keeping Score: April 3, 2020 Current writing streak: 22 days. Switching from tracking words written to time spent writing seems …
2020-04-01: More Social Distance Streaming Recommendations We're halfway through the third week of shelter-in-place here in California. It's starting to feel …
2020-03-30: Spotlight on Local Author: J Dianne Dotson I won't be shy about admitting this: Dianne's one of my personal heroes. A trained scientist, turned …
2020-03-27: Keeping Score: March 27, 2020 I think at this point I can admit to myself (and to you) that I'm not tracking how many words I …
2020-03-23: A Few Streaming Recommendations for Social Distancing As we enter the second (or third, or fourth) week of hunkering down in our homes, I thought I'd …
2020-03-20: Keeping Score: March 20, 2020 What a difference a week makes. Last Friday, I still felt okay going out to my local coffeeshop for …
2020-03-18: Happy Post-St Patrick's Day! Me, all dolled up for the celebration Since moving to San Diego, my wife and I have had a tradition: …
2020-03-13: Keeping Score: March 13, 2020 Got 1,224 words written so far this week. Those are spread out over different projects. I added a …
2020-03-09: Free Markets vs Capitalism The other day, I friend of mine tweeted something about Rage Against the Machine that tripped my …
2020-03-06: Keeping Score: March 6, 2020 Got back to exercising this week. Back to holding to a schedule in the mornings. Back to allowing …
2020-03-04: I Voted! Spring 2020 Edition We're mail-in voters, but between the move and everything else, I ended up heading to polling …
2020-02-28: Keeping Score: February 28, 2020 Sometimes what feels like a really good week is followed by a bad one. For example, this week, in …
2020-02-26: Astroturf Ahoy! It's as green as she can get, Captain! When my wife first suggested we put artificial turf down in …
2020-02-24: Spotlight on Local Author: Tone Milazzo Intro I met Tone Milazzo through the San Diego Writers Coffeehouse group hosted by Jonathan Maberry. …
2020-02-21: Keeping Score: February 21, 2020 976 words written so far this week. I'm slowly getting back into my old habits: Walking/jogging in …
2020-02-17: Too Many Books, and Not Enough To-Read Stack, Dead-Tree Edition I’m not sure when it started — probably sometime after my fifth …
2020-02-14: Keeping Score: February 14, 2020 Happy Valentine's Day! I finally, finally, found some time to get some writing done this week. 1,500 …
2020-02-10: Mountains, Gandalf! Was going to post a review of the latest issue of American Affairs, but I spent all weekend …
2020-02-07: Keeping Score: February 7, 2020 So the move was...rougher than I expected. As you can see above, I sliced my head open while …
2020-02-05: More on the iPad Pro In fact, the iPad Pro hardware, engineering, and silicon teams are probably the most impressive …
2020-02-03: iPad Pro: 10 Years Later, and One Year In Looking Back The iPad's 10 years old this month, and so there's a lot of retrospectives going …
2020-01-31: Keeping Score: January 31, 2020 As I'd hoped, I was able to write some more over the weekend last week, and boost my total word …
2020-01-27: Goliath, by Matt Stoller We don't really talk about the dangers of monopoly in the United States anymore. We praise it, if …
2020-01-24: Keeping Score: January 24, 2020 Only 947 words written so far this week. I'm not worried though; first because I've got the weekend …
2020-01-20: Learning to Listen About Race I was raised by racists. Not cross-burners and Klan members, but racists all the same. My mother sat …
2020-01-17: Keeping Score, January 17, 2020 Only 500 words written this week. The impending move (and sale + purchase) has absorbed most of my …
2020-01-15: Political Tribes, by Amy Chua A frustrating and ultimately disappointing book, with some flashes of insight. Let's start with the …
2020-01-13: Writing Goals for 2020 As we roll into the second week of 2020, I'm taking some time to look at where I am, …
2020-01-10: Keeping Score: January 10, 2020 1,774 words written this week. Managed to hit my writing goal most days, and surpass it once or …
2020-01-08: Four Writing Techniques I Needed in 2019 I read a lot of writing advice. Books, blog posts, twitter feeds, you name it. I know it won't all …
2020-01-06: Writers Coffeehouse, January 2020 First Coffeehouse for the new year! And the last one in Mysterious Galaxy's current space. They're …
2020-01-03: Keeping Score: January 3, 2020 Happy New Year! I hope you achieved your writing goals in 2019, and work your way to new heights of …
2019-12-06: Keeping Score: December 6, 2019 Only a measly 300 words written this week. I can blame the time change (from East Coast back to West …
2019-11-29: Keeping Score: November 29, 2019 Happy Thanksgiving! We're on the East Coast this year, doing what's become a bit of a tradition for …
2019-11-01: Keeping Score: November 1, 2019 3,026 words written this week. Most of those are on the novel, but about a third are edits on the …
2019-10-30: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott Is there anything better than opening a book to find the author is speaking directly to you? It's …
2019-10-25: Keeping Score: October 25, 2019 I think I've written myself into a corner this week. I'm working on a scene where I want to have one …
2019-10-18: Keeping Score: October 18, 2019 2,477 words written this week. I'm going full-steam-ahead on the novel, closing in on the last dozen …
2019-10-11: Keeping Score: October 11, 2019 Thank goodness for the Writers Coffeehouse. Went this Sunday, after skipping for a few months. …
2019-10-07: The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander It's difficult to think of myself as privileged. Growing up, our family car was one donated to us by …
2019-10-04: Keeping Score: October 4, 2019 I’d heard that the bubble of elation you feel when you first have something accepted for …
2019-09-27: Keeping Score: September 27, 2019 Wrote 2,559 words this week! I’m trying to get back in the habit of writing daily, or …
2019-09-23: Southern California Writers Conference 2019 Wrap-Up My brain is full, in the best way. This weekend I went to my first writer’s conference, SCWC …
2019-09-20: Keeping Score: September 20, 2019 Only 750 words written this week. But they’re good words, because I got ‘em rewriting …
2019-09-13: Keeping Score: September 13, 2019 Have you ever written a scene, and almost as soon as it’s done, you realize you have to …
2019-09-06: Keeping Score: September 6, 2019 Only 156 words written this week. I skipped out on the weekly Write In, and it shows. While I did …
2019-08-30: Keeping Score: August 30, 2019 1,679 words written this week, all on the novel. That means two more scenes done – well, …
2019-08-16: Keeping Score: August 16, 2019 Only 450 words this week. Instead of working on the novel, I’ve spent my time revising a flash …
2019-08-09: Keeping Score: August 9, 2019 Only wrote 1,263 words this week (so far). But I feel like I accomplished a lot. I went back to the …
2019-08-06: News & Reviews: August 6, 2019 NewsHUGE NEWS this week: I sold my first short story! And to a professional, SFWA-qualifying market, …
2019-08-02: Keeping Score: August 2, 2019 (aka Getting Back in the Saddle) So it turns out what I thought would just be a small writing break …
2019-06-21: Keeping Score: June 21, 2019 785 words written this week (so far). I’ve got some catch-up work to do over the weekend. …
2019-06-14: Keeping Score: June 14, 2019 1,285 words written this week. The new “just get something done every day” rules are …
2019-06-07: Keeping Score: June 7, 2019 980 words written so far this week. If I can steal an extra hour or so for writing this weekend, …
2019-06-05: Writers Coffeehouse: June 2019 Peter Clines ran the Coffeehouse this month (on his birthday weekend no less!). We had a free-form …
2019-06-03: How to Fix Game of Thrones, Season 8 Spoiler's ahead. If you haven't seen Season 8 yet, and plan to, you probably want to stop reading …
2019-05-31: Keeping Score: May 31, 2019 This week has been a total bust, writing-wise. I started getting sick Sunday evening. By Monday, I …
2019-05-24: Keeping Score: May 24, 2019 So I messed up. I’ve been hitting my 1,500 word goal each week, like clockwork. But it’s …
2019-05-06: Writers Coffeehouse, May 2019 After missing last month’s, I finally made it back to the Coffeehouse yesterday. Peter Clines …
2019-05-03: Keeping Score: May 3, 2019 Only 1,147 words so far this week. I seem to be perpetually hovering around 1/3 of the final word …
2019-04-26: Keeping Score: April 26, 2019 1,594 words written this week. Those words have been pulled out of me, letter by letter. I have to …
2019-04-19: Keeping Score: April 19, 2019 1,086 words this week, all for the novel edit, this time. Though I suppose calling what I’m …
2019-04-12: Keeping Score: April 12, 2019 1,134 words written so far this week. So I’ve got some catchup work to do this weekend. About …
2019-04-05: Keeping Score: April 5, 2019 Written 1,014 words so far this week. That’s a little short of my 1,500-word goal, but given I …
2019-04-03: WonderCon 2019: Day Three Anaheim Train Station at Night, All Lit Up Last day of WonderCon arrived too quickly :( There were …
2019-04-02: WonderCon 2019: Day Two Day Two of WonderCon was packed with panels and interviews. I admit it was almost too much; towards …
2019-04-01: WonderCon 2019: Day One I feel like a real test of a good Con is one you can attend by yourself and still have a good time. …
2019-03-29: Keeping Score: March 29, 2019 Something V. E. Schwab tweeted earlier this week really struck me: It's often hard to start, but …
2019-03-27: Breakout Breakdown: Empire Falls, by Richard Russo So I’ve given myself homework. I decided to take the list of books the Writing the Breakout …
2019-03-22: Keeping Score: March 22, 2019 Only 751 words written so far this week. Seems I’ll be playing catch-up again this weekend. …
2019-03-18: Tracking the Books I need to find a replacement for Goodreads, because I hate using it. Its UI is terrible. It looks …
2019-03-15: Keeping Score: March 15, 2019 Wrote 971 words this week towards the second draft. That’s short of the 1,500 words I’d …
2019-03-08: Keeping Score: March 8, 2019 Finally getting back to the good part: the writing. Or rather, the re-writing. Finished off the …
2019-03-04: Writers Coffeehouse: March 2019 Henry Herz was kind enough to take on hosting duties this month, giving us more insight into both …
2019-03-01: Keeping Score: March 1, 2019 Finished the workbook’s version of the outline. Finally. Now I’ve just got to take that …
2019-02-22: Keeping Score: February 22, 2019 I’m two-thirds of the way through the workbook’s version of the outline. I say …
2019-02-15: Keeping Score: February 15, 2019 The novel keeps changing. I’m trying to pull all the threads from the workbook together, so I …
2019-02-08: Keeping Score: February 8, 2019 I’ve finished the workbook! Well, finished as much of it as I can. There’s a few …
2019-02-04: Writers Coffeehouse: Feb 2019 Another great Coffeehouse this month. Jonathan Maberry was out at a conference, so Peter Clines (NYT …
2019-02-01: Keeping Score: February 1, 2019 I’m almost done with the Breakout Novel Workbook. Only seven exercises left to go, which I …
2019-01-25: Keeping Score: January 25, 2019 I’m almost two-thirds of the way through the Breakout Novel workbook, now. The exercises seem …
2019-01-18: Keeping Score: January 18, 2019 Ever had a week where you feel like a failure? When even the things that go right don’t go …
2019-01-11: Keeping Score: January 11, 2019 Again, no words written this week. Staying focused on editing the novel, and submitting existing …
2019-01-04: Keeping Score: January 4, 2019 Absolutely 0 words written this week. But! I’ve not been idle. I submitted two short stories …
2018-12-28: 2018: By the Numbers Oof, 2018. So many times this year, my wife and I looked at each other, reminiscing about something …
2018-12-21: Midlife, by Kieran Setiya Picked this one up during my last trip through Boston. I’m inching closer and closer to forty, …
2018-12-14: Seattle I’ve spent the last week up in Seattle for a conference. It’s not my first time in the …
2018-12-07: Rebooting My Writing Brain When I finished the first draft of the latest novel two weeks ago, I told myself I could take the …
2018-12-04: Cicero, by Anthony Everitt Masterful. Not only did I get a better sense of who Cicero was as a person, and why he was …
2018-12-03: Writers Coffeehouse: December 2018 Another great coffeehouse! Since it’s December, we had a bit of a holiday pot-luck: people …
2018-11-23: On The Origins of Totalitarianism Recently finished reading Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism. It’s hard for me …
2018-11-21: Keeping Score: November 21, 2018 At 67,010 words, the novel’s done! Been writing at a good clip while on vacation this week; …
2018-11-12: Keeping Score: November 12, 2018 Another week down: 2,295 words written! Not all of those were for the novel, though. I’ve …
2018-11-09: Apple Watch Series 4.0: They Finally Got It Right I’ve come to resent having to carry my phone with me wherever I go. It’s this large, …
2018-11-05: Keeping Score: November 5, 2018 Still on target, if just barely: 2,256 words written last week. I’ve reached the “ye …
2018-10-29: Keeping Score: October 29, 2018 Last week was my first week back to a regular writing schedule, after traveling in Ireland for …
2018-10-22: Choosing the President: A Modest Proposal The ProblemThe way we choose Presidents in the United States is flawed. It’s too easy for someone …
2018-10-03: Fantasyland, by Kurt Andersen Ever read a book that makes you feel both better and worse about the times you live in? That’s what …
2018-10-01: Keeping Score: October 1, 2018 Scraped by this week’s word goal: 2,258 words. The next week or two are going to be spotty, …
2018-09-24: Keeping Score: September 24, 2018 Wrote 2,404 words last week! That makes three weeks in a row I’ve managed to hit my new, …
2018-09-17: Keeping Score: September 17, 2018 2,306 words written this week! I’m trying to let go a little more this week. As in, stop …
2018-09-10: Keeping Score: September 10, 2018 I did it! Hit the new word count goal: 2,285 words written last week! Again, I wrote most of them on …
2018-09-03: Keeping Score: September 3, 2018 2,050 words written this week! That’s five weeks in a row of hitting my goal of 2,000 words. …
2018-08-27: Keeping Score: August 27, 2018 Wrote 2,023 words this week! This means I not only met my goal, but the book’s crossed over …
2018-08-24: Conservative Arguments Among the many feelings I have about American politics recently, a recurring one is disappointment. …
2018-08-20: Keeping Score: August 20, 2018 Blew past the word count goal this week: 2,133 words written! I realized yesterday that I’m …
2018-08-13: Keeping Score: August 13, 2018 Hit the new goal again this week: 2,016 words written. Wrote almost 900 of those in a single day: …
2018-08-06: Keeping Score: August 6, 2018 So: I didn’t make it to this month’s Writers Coffeehouse. Missed seeing everyone, and …
2018-07-30: Keeping Score: July 30, 2018 Managed to write 1,784 words last week. I thought I’d get more done, with my wife out of town, …
2018-07-09: Alive by Scott Sigler Intense. The prose is stripped clean of excess, going down so smooth it injects the story right into …
2018-07-06: Keeping Score: July 6, 2018 1,761 words written this week. Whew. Really glad I went to the Writers Coffeehouse last Sunday. …
2018-07-02: Writers Coffeehouse, July 2018 Made it back to the Writer’s Coffeehouse this month. It was a smaller crowd than usual, but …
2018-06-22: Keeping Score: June 22, 2018 Made the new word-count goal for a second week, thank the gods: 2,478 words. Again, most of those …
2018-06-15: Keeping Score: June 15, 2018 First week of the new word-count target. Final score? 2,698 words (!) I feel ambiguous about that …
2018-06-08: Keeping Score: June 8, 2018 Hit my word count again this week. This makes 12 weeks in a row. 12 weeks where I’ve written …
2018-05-28: Memorial Day, 2018 It’s Memorial Day here in the US, which means it’s supposed to be a day for us to …
2018-05-21: Keeping Score: May 21, 2018 Haven’t posted in a bit. We’ve been ramping up the search for a house this month, and …
2018-05-08: Writers Coffeehouse, May 2018 Another solid Coffeehouse. Scott Sigler returned for hosting duties, and he ran a tight ship, taking …
2018-04-20: Keeping Score: April 20, 2018 Another blow out week! Wrote 2,519 words (whew!). Most of them were for the new novel, but, like …
2018-04-13: Keeping Score: April 13, 2018 Blew through my writing goal this week: 2,431 words written. Not all of them were for the new novel, …
2018-04-12: Don't Fall For Republican Nostalgia Paul Ryan’s only just announced his retirement from Congress, and already people in the media are …
2018-04-09: Writers Coffeehouse, April 2018 Another great coffeehouse! Jonathan Maberry was back for hosting duties, and kicked off two lively …
2018-04-06: Keeping Score: April 6, 2018 Scraped by my word goal this week: 1,554 words, most of which were written in just two days …
2018-03-30: Keeping Score: March 30, 2018 Whew. Managed to scrape by my goal this week: 1,511 words. Definitely not raising my weekly word …
2018-03-27: WonderCon 2018 Day Two Spent most of my second day at WonderCon in the Writers Coffeehouse. Caught a few writing panels …
2018-03-26: WonderCon 2018: Notes From Day One WonderCon 2018 was amazing! So much more relaxed than Comic-Con. I’ll do a summary post about …
2018-03-23: Keeping Score: March 23, 2018 I did it! Wrote 1,586 words this week, just enough to make my new goal :) Novel’s passed …
2018-03-16: Keeping Score: March 16, 2018 Another week, another push. 1,265 words written this week, again just over goal. I think it’s …
2018-03-09: Keeping Score: March 9, 2018 I did it again! 1,488 words written this week. The streak continues! The iPad continues to earn its …
2018-03-05: Keeping Score: March 5, 2018 Still on the road. Got back from the cruise last Sunday, unpacked, did laundry, then re-packed …
2018-02-22: Keeping Score: Feb 22, 2018 I’m on a boat! I don’t have internet access while at sea, so I’m posting this on …
2018-02-16: Keeping Score: Feb 16, 2018 Second week of using my new writing score system. Managed to turn out 1,489 words for the new book, …
2018-02-12: If Doorknobs Were Software If we designed doorknobs the way we design software, each one would come with a user manual. They …
2018-02-09: Keeping Score After attending Sunday’s Writers Coffeehouse, I decided to adopt Scott Sigler’s …
2018-02-05: Notes from Writers Coffeehouse, Feb 2018 Attended my first Writers Coffeehouse in a few months yesterday. I’m glad I did; I came away …
2017-12-27: Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius Not what I expected. I’d always thought the Meditations was a set of philosophical aphorisms. …
2017-12-18: The Conquest of Gaul, by Julius Caesar Not what I expected. Written in plain language, as if he wanted to sound trustworthy, so the reader …
2017-11-27: Augustus by Anthony Everitt Illuminating. Everitt makes Augustus a sympathetic figure, but without hiding any of his flaws: his …
2017-11-01: It Begins! Today’s the first day of NaNoWriMo! I’ve got a rough outline, written short stories …
2017-10-30: Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas Essential. Maas describes the elements of a “breakout” novel, showing how to make any …
2017-10-23: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Masterful. It’s a classic for a reason: a locked-room mystery on an entire train, that builds …
2017-10-20: Back to Basics Realized a few weeks back that I wasn’t making the progress on the short stories that I wanted …
2017-10-19: How to Fix: Blade Runner 2049 What Went Wrong Almost nothing. This is a gorgeous movie, an obvious labor of love that evokes the …
2017-10-18: X vs Y by Eve Epstein & Leonora Epstein A cracking good read. Illuminates the relationship between Gen X and Gen Y, something that’s …
2017-10-17: Notes from Clojure/Conj 2017 It was a good Conj. Saw several friends and former co-workers of mine, heard some great talks about …
2017-10-16: Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum Stunning. I had no idea of the magnitude of what was lost in Eastern and Central Europe after the …
2017-10-03: Writers' Coffeehouse, Oct 2017 Another great meeting! Peter Clines graciously agreed to serve as host, prior to his signing at …
2017-10-02: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie Generally excellent. Where the first book was broad, with multiple locations and times, the second …
2017-09-25: 1946 by Victor Sebestyen Revelatory, especially when paired with Year Zero. Sebestyen shows how the Cold War began, so soon …
2017-09-22: Rejected Got multiple rejections this week. One was from an agent I’d queried about representing my …
2017-09-18: How to Fix: Guardians of the Galaxy II Damn, what a missed opportunity. I enjoyed the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and hoped the …
2017-09-11: Writer's Coffeehouse Notes, Sep 2017 Went to the Writer’s Coffeehouse at Mysterious Galaxy again yesterday. This time it was hosted …
2017-09-06: Brief Comics Reviews: Sep 2017 Wicked and Divine, Vol 4: Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. It’s back. Swallowed this one whole …
2017-09-04: Year Zero by Ian Buruma Illuminating. Filled a gap in my understanding of the war, of the year between the Allied victory …
2017-08-21: Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry Simply put, a fantastic ghost story. Like a horror film from the 80s updated and put in novel form. …
2017-08-16: 1493 by Charles C. Mann Revelatory. Mann’s 1491 opened my eyes to the many civilizations that existed in the Americas …
2017-08-11: Patience Sent the novel out to my first pick agent this weekend. I know it’ll most likely be rejected …
2017-08-09: On the Google Anti-Diversity Memo It’s horseshit. From its title (“Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”) to its …
2017-08-07: Writer's Coffeehouse Notes, Aug 2017 Attended the Writer’s Coffeehouse at Mysterious Galaxy yesterday. As always, I came away with …
2017-08-04: First Novel Done! It’s done! Finished the final editing pass for the last few chapters of my first novel early …
2017-07-28: Beyond the Editing Wall Only four chapters left in the final editing pass for the novel. Four chapters. I’ll be done …
2017-07-21: Wrapping Up a Month of New Writing Habits Wife made it back from Arkansas on Tuesday (huzzah!), so my hermit-writing time is coming to a …
2017-07-17: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Another classic that I just never got around to reading before. And it’s deservedly a classic. …
2017-07-14: Scorecard: Third Week Third and final week. How’d I do? Edit one chapter a day: Check. Whew. Write a new short …
2017-07-10: Tubes by Andrew Blum A nice, quick intro to the physical infrastructure of the internet. Doesn’t really go into how …
2017-07-07: Scorecard: Second Week Two weeks in. Had a holiday in the middle of this one, so…how’d I do? Edit one chapter …
2017-07-05: Introducing elm-present I’m in love with Elm. No, really. I don’t know if it’s just that I’ve been …
2017-07-03: Ironskin by Tina Connolly Fantastically well-done. Weaves together magic, fairies, Great War trauma, romance, sisterly …
2017-06-30: Scorecard: First Week Last week I set some goals to keep me on track for a productive summer. So, how am I doing? Edit …
2017-06-26: Crooked by Austin Grossman Another strong portrayal of a villain from Grossman. Avoids the trap of completely rehabilitating …
2017-06-23: Going for the Goal My wife’s in Arkansas for the next few weeks, visiting her mother for her annual …
2017-06-19: Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan A 1990s trenchcoats-and-mirrorshades action film published in the 21st century with 1950s gender …
2017-05-29: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Basically perfect. It’s low-key, character-driven sci-fi, stuffed with cool ideas and diverse …
2017-05-19: Best Book Forward? At the Writer’s Coffeehouse this weekend, another writer asked what they should do when they …
2017-05-15: Persona by Genevieve Valentine Disappointing. Starts out well, action pumping and character backstories fleshed out just enough to …
2017-05-03: My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland Fantastic. Absolutely nails the smugness and insincerity of the South, along with the surprise of …
2017-05-01: Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link Exasperating. With the exception of The Faery Handbag, none of the supposed stories in this …
2017-04-21: The End is Near Novel edits are coming along faster than I thought. Might actually get them all done by the end of …
2017-04-17: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Masterful. Incredibly well-crafted series of nested narratives that simultaneously did a deep dive …
2017-04-12: The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty It’s got an elderly kick-ass demon-assassin, zombies that can think, and a death goddess …
2017-04-10: Strangely Beautiful, Vol 1 by Leanna Renee Hieber “Gothic” in the overwrought, melodramatic sense. There’s some fantastic ideas in …
2017-04-07: Cranking Through Managed to whittle the list of editing passes from twelve to twenty and now back to thirteen. Which …
2017-04-05: Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks: Julia Julia feels…rough. There are parts I absolutely love, like the strong typing, the baked-in …
2017-04-03: I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas Disturbing. Most of the characters are completely unlikable, especially the men: the worst are …
2017-03-29: Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn Beautiful. Simple, tight prose, telling a deeply moving story. Can’t wait to read the next …
2017-03-27: On the Eyeball Floor and Other Stories by Tina Connolly A strong collection of stories. Connolly moves from near-future sci-fi to alternate world fantasy to …
2017-03-20: Headstrong by Rachel Swaby A cornucopia of female scientists and engineers that got left out of the history I learned in …
2017-03-13: White Horse by Alex Adams Frustrating and disappointing. Adams' writing is stuffed with metaphors, giving everything a dreamy …
2017-03-10: Everyone Gets a Pass My original plan for editing the first novel turned out to be…rather naive. I thought it …
2017-03-06: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler Prescient, gripping, and intimidatingly good. Definitely going to read more of Butler’s books. …
2017-03-01: Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks: Elixir So frustrating. I had high hopes going in that Elixir might be my next server-side language of …
2017-02-27: The Man Who Knew Too Much by G K Chesterton A series of confusing, racist, Anti-Semitic stories. None of the characters are admirable. The …
2017-02-22: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel Oddly compelling. Told any other way, it’d be just one more story about giant robots and the …
2017-02-20: Doctor Who Psychology edited by Travis Langley Disappointing. Most of the essays are too short to be rewarding, stopping just when they might be …
2017-02-15: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler Eerily prescient. Takes place in a California where water is scarce, most government has been …
2017-02-13: Making Comics by Scott McCloud Insightful, like all of Scott McCloud’s books on comics. Not enough on its own for me to go …
2017-01-30: Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks: Elm Between the move and the election and the holidays, took me a long time to finish this chapter. But …
2017-01-25: The Just City by Jo Walton Inspiring. I could not imagine daring to try to write dialog for Greek gods and long-dead …
2017-01-23: Average There’s a video making the rounds on Facebook that claims to show how the “average …
2017-01-20: Editing as Worldbuilding We’re here! Made it into San Diego last week, despite freezing rain (Flagstaff), gusty winds …
2017-01-11: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Easily worthy of the awards it won. Fantastic ideas, presented through conflicts with interesting …
2017-01-09: The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo Fascinating. Examines both what we know about Anne Boleyn (very little), and the stories that have …
2017-01-06: Idle Hands No writing this week. The novel’s done (for now), so I’ve been focused on the upcoming …
2017-01-04: There are No Sides. Just the Truth. Dear U.S. Media: Please stop reporting both sides. I know you want to appear impartial. I know you …
2017-01-02: Going Home Thank the gods 2016 is over. I think it’s been a rough year for many people. My rough 2016 …
2016-12-30: Done! Novel’s complete at 50,122 words! At least, I think it’s complete. Last time I thought …
2016-12-28: RIP Carrie Fisher Other people have more and better things to say, so I’ll just link to my favorite, an article …
2016-12-26: How to Fix: Rogue One What Went Wrong Almost everything. From casting, to story, to editing, this movie is a step …
2016-12-19: The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore Amazing. I had no idea Wonder Woman was so directly connected to the history of American feminism. …
2016-12-16: Outline as Compass Novel’s at 39,412 words. Decided to brainstorm my way out of being lost. I took the climax …
2016-12-12: The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein Riveting. Perlstein’s book is long, but moves at a fast clip; I stayed up late three nights in …
2016-12-09: Where Am I? Novel’s at 33,986 words. I’m at a point where I’m not sure how much story is left …
2016-12-02: From Sprint to Marathon NaNoWriMo’s over. Final word count: 30,836. So, I didn’t make it to 50,000 this year. …
2016-11-30: Story by Robert McKee Life changing. It’s changed the way I watch movies. As I watch I’m now looking for the …
2016-11-28: How to Fix: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them What Went Wrong Man, this movie tried to pack it all in. Dark wizards, magical creatures, conflict …
2016-11-25: Wanted: More Time Novel’s at 19,170 words. Limped along with 500 words a day through the week, then managed to …
2016-11-23: The Problem with Programmer Interviews You’re a nurse. You go in to interview for a new job at a hospital. You’re nervous, but …
2016-11-21: No Crisis I refuse to believe that Trump’s election is a moment of ‘crisis’ for liberalism. …
2016-11-18: Behind Novel’s at 12,104 words. I’m seriously behind. About 18,000 words behind, to be more …
2016-11-14: SPQR by Mary Beard Fascinating. Covers the first Roman millennium, from ~750 BCE to 212 CE, but with the specific goal …
2016-11-11: Getting Back to Work Haven’t been able to write since Tuesday. I’ve been too hurt, too confused, too angry to …
2016-11-09: Heartbroken How can I write, when my heart is broken? How can I work, knowing my country doesn’t want me, …
2016-11-04: There's More, Thank Goodness Went back to finish the short story, as prep for converting it into a novel for NaNoWriMo…and …
2016-11-01: Geronimo! It’s 50,000 words to win NaNoWriMo. I’ve got a head full of ideas, a half-finished …
2016-10-21: Three Fronts Made good progress on three different projects this week. First, the finished fantasy novel. …
2016-10-14: NaNoWriMo is Coming I really want to do NaNoWriMo again this year. Last time, it helped me finally dig in and start a …
2016-10-12: Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks: Factor Continuing on to the next language in the book: Factor. Factor is…strange, and often …
2016-10-10: Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli Revelatory. Deliberately covers all of Jobs' flaws from his early days at Apple, to show how he …
2016-10-07: Query Time Opened the novel this week to continue my edits. Flipped open my notes, looked for the next thing …
2016-10-05: Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella Surprisingly deep and engrossing. Reads like total fluff, but wrestles with real issues: debt, …
2016-09-23: Last Cull Working through the last chapter that needs to be trimmed down. So far, I’ve cut about 12,000 …
2016-09-21: Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks: Lua Realized I haven’t learned any new programming languages in a while, so I picked up a copy of …
2016-09-19: Seven Bad Ideas by Jeff Madrick Comprehensive. Explains 7 of the biggest ideas underlying the dominant economic model of the world, …
2016-09-16: The Best Word is a Deleted Word Trimmed another 3,000 words off the draft this week. Only three chapters left to truncate. Then I …
2016-09-12: 11/22/63 by Stephen King Compelling. Read the last half of this 900+ page monster in a single day. Still amazes me how …
2016-09-09: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat Labor Day weekend was awesome. I spent most of each day editing: reading through the novel and …
2016-09-02: Editing Day Today is Editing Day. I’ve patched the holes in the plot. I’ve gone through and made the …
2016-08-31: Owning Our Future by Marjorie Kelly Uneven. The company profiles are interesting, if sometimes sparse on details, and present views into …
2016-08-29: Lustlocked by Matt Wallace Brilliant. Wallace’s writing is as lean and focused as ever, keeping the action moving and the …
2016-08-25: Notes from WorldCon 2016: Day Four Non-anglophone authors you should know dr schaff-stump: japan and russia kastersmidt: born in …
2016-08-24: Notes from WorldCon 2016: Day Three Flash Fiction: Short but not easy betsy dornbusch: writes mostly epic fantasy, used to buy flash …
2016-08-23: Notes from WorldCon 2016: Day Two Enjoying urban fantasy diana rowland: white trash zombie melissa f olson: tor.com novellas what do …
2016-08-22: Notes From WorldCon 2016: Day One Writing fight scenes perspective of character that has been in a fight versus one that never has is …
2016-08-17: To WorldCon! Wife and I are heading off to WorldCon today! It’s in Kansas City this year, which is only a …
2016-08-15: Life Along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield Eye-opening. Brings two hundred years of Central Asian history to life through a series of …
2016-08-12: Patching Biggest three flaws in the novel are fixed! Or, at least, I think they are? Hard to tell without …
2016-08-10: Trekonomics by Manu Saadia Disappointing. Starts out strong, with several good chapters covering how the replicator enables …
2016-08-08: Real Artists Have Day Jobs by Sara Benincasa Fantastic. Many of the essays are very, very personal – sometimes painfully so – but …
2016-08-05: Chugging Along the Editing Rails The major flaw in the novel is almost fixed. I’ve been editing around it, working my way from …
2016-08-03: Once More Unto the Comics Reviews Breach, My Friends Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, vol 2: Still hilarious, easily one of my favorite comics. The characters …
2016-08-01: The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin Masterful. Jemisin’s mentioned in several interviews that this was a hard book for her to …
2016-07-29: Don't Worry, Be Editing With the first draft of the children’s book done, I can at last turn to editing my first …
2016-07-25: Uprooted by Naomi Novik Practically perfect. Preserves a fairy-tale feel while subverting fairy tale tropes; I can easily …
2016-07-22: First Draft First draft of the children’s book is done! I’m way over the target word count, but at …
2016-07-15: Harder Than It Looks Making good progress on the children’s book. Taking each page as a single scene, a single beat …
2016-07-11: The Usual Path to Publication edited by Shannon Page Uneven. The publication stories from the first half of the book are very depressing, and made me …
2016-07-08: Details, Details Spent the week working through the rough outline, filling in details as I go. I’m writing up …
2016-07-06: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson Moving. Robinson conveys both the triumphs and the horrors of interstellar colonization, covering …
2016-07-01: It's a Comic! Sort of. Had a realization this week that’s guiding how I outline the children’s book I’m …
2016-06-27: Chasing the Moon by A. Lee Martinez Intimidating. Martinez mixes bits of Cthulhu Mythos with Norse mythology while maintaining a comedic …
2016-06-24: Clueless This week I’ve started outlining a children’s book my wife and I came up with last …
2016-06-20: The Martian by Andy Weir Fantastic. It’s Robinson Crusoe in space, executed so well that what should have been boring …
2016-06-17: Looking Back I’ve been thinking about how I wrote this last novel, and what I might need to change about my …
2016-06-13: The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes More a series of biographies than a proper narrative history. Still well-written and interesting, …
2016-06-10: Next! Taken the last few days off from writing. That’ll likely extend into the weekend, when my wife …
2016-06-08: Finally New novel’s done! Topped out at 111,733 words yesterday morning. I feel proud, relieved, and …
2016-06-03: Nope Novel’s at 103,532 words…and it’s still not finished. Wrote about 10,000 words in …
2016-05-25: Can't Talk Now, Writing! No real blog post today (or likely on Friday or Monday), as I’m focused on wrapping up the …
2016-05-23: Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism by Christine Desan Amazing. Desan pulls back the myths about money’s origins, demonstrating in the process how …
2016-05-20: No Time Off Novel’s at 88,796 words. I’m pushing myself to write at least 400 words a day, …
2016-05-18: How to Fix Deadpool This movie was surprisingly good. I’ll admit I know nothing about the comic book character …
2016-05-16: How to Fix Captain America: Winter Soldier I loved this movie when it came out. It was interesting, well-paced, and felt like it did justice to …
2016-05-13: Closing In Managed to quiet my inner editor long enough to push the novel to 86,126 words this week. The puzzle …
2016-05-11: How to Fix Thor I’ll admit it. My wife and I are re-watching all the Marvel movies in preparation for Civil …
2016-05-09: How to Fix Iron Man 2 Re-watched this one over the weekend, and it holds up better than I remember. Rourke’s villain …
2016-05-06: Not Blocked, Afraid Novel’s at 83,370 words. So I turned out to be wrong about sustaining the faster pace. Only …
2016-05-02: Darkest Dungeon, from Red Hook Studios Addictive. Which surprises me, since I spend most of my time failing at individual missions, …
2016-04-29: Speeding Up Novel’s at 82,649 words. Deadline seems to be working. I’ve been writing about 400 words …
2016-04-27: Follow the Tweeting Bot I have a problem. No, not my fondness for singing 80s country in a bad twang during karaoke. I mean …
2016-04-25: Footsteps in the Sky by Greg Keyes Fantastic. Keyes juggles plot threads involving first contact, corporate espionage, traditionalists …
2016-04-22: On a Deadline Novel’s at 80,577 words. I’m closing in on my original 90,000 word target. I have a …
2016-04-20: Mad Libs: The Game from Looney Labs It’s Mad Libs crossed with Apples to Apples. What’s not to like? Easy to learn, quick to …
2016-04-18: Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier Eye-opening. Reminded me of the extent of the NSA’s surveillance activities, of the importance …
2016-04-15: There's a Theme? Novel’s at 78,941 words. Which is an odd time to have finally figured out its theme. Or …
2016-04-13: Loonacy, from Looney Labs Awesome. Easy to learn, quick to play, and ye gods, addictive. Reminded me a lot of Egyptian …
2016-04-11: The Aesthetic of Play by Brian Upton Inspirational. Completely changed my mind on the tension between narrative and play in video games. …
2016-04-08: Steady as Ink Flows Novel’s at 77,376 words. Writing’s been chugging along this week. My last major decision …
2016-04-06: Brief Comics Reviews, Take 3 Southern Cross Vol 1 - Great art. Very creepy. Felt there were some strange jumps or discontinuities …
2016-04-04: Lord of the Fries, from James Ernest Fun game with a hilarious premise. Rules were a little hard to wrap our heads around – when to …
2016-04-01: No Sick Days Came back from Boston with a lovely head cold that made me want to crawl into bed and sleep for a …
2016-03-30: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab Absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Nominated it for a Hugo as soon as I read the last page. …
2016-03-28: The Craft Beer Revolution by Steve Hindy An odd mix of politics and brewing history. Gives an intro to several breweries, and how they got …
2016-03-25: Work Delays Not much progress on the novel this week. I’ve been in Boston for a company meetup, which has …
2016-03-23: Shadows Over Camelot, from Serge Laget and Bruno Cathala Involved, complex, and tough. We spent our time rushing around the board, from crisis to crisis, …
2016-03-21: The Wars of the Roses by Dan Jones Lucid, detailed, and engrossing, much like its predecessor, The Plantagenets. Jones has a gift for …
2016-03-18: Too Much Information Novel’s at 73,653 words. Still pushing forward, thought the last few scenes have been hard for …
2016-03-16: One Night Ultimate Werewolf, from Ted Alspach, Akihisa Okui, and Gus Batts Took longer to explain the rules than to play the game. Not that the rules are complex, just that …
2016-03-14: Flash Point, from Kevin Lanzing, Luis Francisco and George Patsouras A bit complex to setup and rather awkward to learn. First game was really slow as we tried to figure …
2016-03-11: Forward, Ho! Novel’s at 72,337 words. I’ve managed to fix last week’s mistake, and gotten back …
2016-03-09: Splendor, from Marc André and Pascal Quidault Easy to pick up and learn, tough to win. I made the mistake of playing it like a deck-building card …
2016-03-07: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell Frustrating. Moving, often brilliant, but feels incomplete in many ways. Magical bits aren’t …
2016-03-04: Oops Novel’s at 70,855 words. Didn’t do any writing over the week of the cruise. With no …
2016-03-02: JoCo Cruise Crazy 2016 This was the first cruise my wife and I had ever been on. We weren’t sure what to expect. …
2016-02-29: Back to Reality: JoCo Cruise Edition Made it back home from JoCo Cruise 2016 last night. I’ll do a more detailed breakdown of the …
2016-02-24: How to Fix Spectre Such a disappointment. What Went Wrong The entire film is pure formula. Intro is an action sequence …
2016-02-22: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer Tense, claustrophobic, and dreamlike, a Lovecraftian tale as told by Borges. Reminded me a bit of …
2016-02-19: The End is Visible Novel’s at 70,684 words. Final third of the novel is starting to take shape. The plot’s …
2016-02-17: Envy of Angels by Matt Wallace Absolutely awesome from start to finish. Blends haute-cuisine, horror, and comedy into a cocktail …
2016-02-15: The Limits of Law by Peter H. Schuck A mixed bag of interesting, well-thought out essays mingled with articulate but specious arguments …
2016-02-12: Slapped in the Face with the Answer Novel’s at 68,869 words. My characters are smarter than me. Throughout writing this book, …
2016-02-10: Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig Fantastic. And I’m not just saying that because I’ve been a Chuck Wendig fan ever since …
2016-02-08: How to Fix Revenge of the Sith Almost done with the prequels. Thankfully this is the best of three, though given the generally low …
2016-02-05: Emerging from the Shadows Novel’s at 66,694 words. This week’s events have thrown more light onto the villain of …
2016-02-01: How to Fix Attack of the Clones Another tall order. I like this one more than Phantom Menace, but it’s flaws are deeper, even …
2016-01-29: Running Off the Rails Holding Scissors Novel’s at 64,623 words. My entire plot’s taken a huge left turn. I’ve been off …
2016-01-27: How to Fix The Phantom Menace Stay with me on this one. Underneath all the Jar-Jar antics and the layer-cake of special effects is …
2016-01-22: Steady On Pushed the novel to 62,769 words this week. I’m trying to worry less and less about picking …
2016-01-18: How to Fix The Force Awakens Don’t change a damn thing. Seriously, I’ve seen the movie twice now, and will go in for …
2016-01-15: Grinding Ahead Novel’s reached 61,085 words. New routine is still working. I’ve managed to hit or …
2016-01-13: Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson Surprising, strange, and very well done. Manages to weave alien contact, game development, and …
2016-01-11: Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Terrible. Just terrible. Wasn’t able to make it through this one; it was too tough a slog. …
2016-01-08: New Year, New Start Novel’s at 59,195 words. Didn’t get much writing done over Christmas break at all. Had …
2016-01-04: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Reads like a nineteenth-century fairy tale. Manages to weave these mythical characters into a bigger …
2015-12-14: How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson Reads more like a series of essays first published in a paper or blog than a book with a single …
2015-12-11: Writing in Batches Novel’s at 56,441 words. Got most of my writing for the week done on Sunday, in one go. …
2015-12-07: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan Fantastic. Not the drawing-room novel I feared it would be, nor the swashbuckling “strong …
2015-12-04: Shifting the Outline Novel’s at 55,647 words. I’ve been able to hit my 250 word goal most days, thank …
2015-11-30: The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir Paradigm-shifting. Should have been required reading for my philosophy degree. Beauvoir applies …
2015-11-20: Reverse Pomodoro Still no working bathroom, no walls on the house, no ceiling in one room, and no fix for my failed …
2015-11-16: How to Remake To Kill A Mockingbird Rewatched To Kill a Mockingbird this weekend. My wife had never seen it, and I hadn’t seen it …
2015-11-13: No Time to Wait on a Sinking Ship I’ve had to compromise on my daily word count multiple times. First I slipped from 500 words a …
2015-11-09: How to Fix Jurassic World What Went Wrong Almost everything. Nothing makes sense: not the CEO that doesn't care about …
2015-11-06: Is This Progress? Novel’s at 49,793 words. I’m having to steal writing time from other things. Not set …
2015-11-02: Anathem by Neal Stephenson Came out of this one with mixed feelings. Really enjoyed the first third or so of the book, but it …
2015-10-28: How to Fix Avengers: Age of Ultron What Went Wrong There's way too much crammed into this movie. We have to cover the twins' origin …
2015-10-14: More Brief Comics Reviews Rat Queens Vol 1: Characters are basically college kids with medieval weapons and magic. Wants to …
2015-10-12: Empire's Workshop by Greg Grandin Blatantly partisan, and frustrating more than informative. Was hoping for a survey history of Latin …
2015-10-09: Writing on the Run Greetings from Arkansas! No writing post last week, because on Thursday I finished packing up the …
2015-10-07: Notes from Strange Loop 2015: Day Two Pixie lisp own vm compiled using RPython tool chain RPython - reduced python used in PyPy project …
2015-10-05: Notes from Strange Loop 2015: Day One Unconventional Programming with Chemical Computing Carin Meier Living Clojure @Cognitect Inspired …
2015-09-30: How to Fix Riddick I love Pitch Black. It’s an almost perfect B movie to me, all horror and snark and very little …
2015-09-28: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The second of the set of classics I’ve decided to finally go back and read. As with Heart of …
2015-09-25: Dropping Threads Novel’s made it to 43,593 words. Starting to worry that pantsing it means I’m dropping …
2015-09-23: Aliens vs Predator: Which is the Better Movie? A friend of mine last week insisted that Aliens was a better movie than Predator. Having fond …
2015-09-21: The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts by Graham Robb An odd book. The author’s main thesis – that the Celts knew enough about geometry and …
2015-09-18: Writing Through It Novel’s grown to 41,169 words. This week’s writing has been done not in spite of stress, …
2015-09-16: Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines Fantastic, pulpy action. I mean, it’s zombies vs superheroes, how could I not read this? The …
2015-09-14: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore An amazing achievement. Moore’s novel deals head-on with the tragedy and emotional wreckage of …
2015-09-11: The Only Thing Blocking Me is My Fear of Being Blocked Novel’s reached 37,510 words. My semi-pantsing of the thing is still working. The characters …
2015-09-09: Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George Fascinating. Shines light on an invisible but vital industry. The author got to travel on a …
2015-09-07: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Realized recently that I’ve never read many of the classic works of literature: no Dickens, no …
2015-09-04: Maybe I'm a Pantser Novel’s at 32,277 words. Most days I’ve managed to write more than my 250 word goal, …
2015-09-02: On Writing by Stephen King Revelatory. I first read this ten years ago, when I was first trying to take my writing seriously. …
2015-08-31: The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross One of those books I tried several times to read, failed to get into, and finally just plowed …
2015-08-28: Back to Work Novel’s at 29,068 words: I’m back to working on it, and it feels great. The week off …
2015-08-26: Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman A rambling, overly-long book. Spends so much time digressing from his core topic – dipping …
2015-08-24: How to Fix Kingsman: The Secret Service Kingsman: The Secret Service is an uneven movie. It’s trying to both subvert and exploit spy …
2015-08-21: Time to Breathe I haven’t written anything for the novel in a week. More importantly, I haven’t let …
2015-08-19: 8 Brief Comic Reviews Ms Marvel (Wilson, Alphona): Well written. Not written for me. Captain Marvel (DeConnick, Soy): Not …
2015-08-17: Making Peace with Doctor Who Season 8 There’s a moment in the first episode of Season 8 where The Doctor turns to Clara and says: …
2015-08-14: Treading Water Novel stands at 26,750 words. Haven’t posted here in a while because my life is being turned …
2015-07-17: Feeling My Way Forward Novel’s currently at 7,787 words. I’ve only written the first couple of scenes, and …
2015-07-10: Slowed, Not Blocked Not much progress this week: only at 4,180 words. I’d like to say that I didn’t get to …
2015-07-03: It's Begun! Started writing the new novel July 1st, as scheduled. Already 1,600 words in. It was an incredible …
2015-07-01: How to Read Any Online Magazine on a Kobo eReader I’ve been trying to read various magazines – for example, The Economist – on some …
2015-06-29: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers An excellent book, but one I wouldn’t have been able to finish without spoilers. It’s …
2015-06-26: Off to Camp I’ve joined Camp NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo gave me the motivation I needed to start …
2015-06-24: Refilling the Well Every couple of weeks, I have to do what I think of as “refilling the well.” It’s …
2015-06-22: Pushing Characters and Buttons: Lessons from Game of Thrones' Season 5 Warning: Spoilers ahead. I’m not sure I’ll be back for Season 6 of Game of Thrones. I …
2015-06-19: Working Forwards and Backwards Outline’s not quite done. I keep bouncing back and forth between the plot and the characters, …
2015-06-15: The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin Incredibly long, but eye-opening. So much more of the news makes sense to me now, like I’ve …
2015-06-12: Laying Down the Path Thanks to the good advice from L.D. Parker in the comments, I resolved last week’s plotting …
2015-06-08: Review: Kobo Glo HD I’ve had two generations of Nook ereaders. I liked holding them better than the Kindles that …
2015-06-05: Forks in the Road Had a minor hiccup in outlining the new book while I was traveling: I decided to change the main …
2015-06-03: Notes from LambdaConf 2015 Haskell and Power Series Brought to Life not interested in convergence laziness lets you handle …
2015-06-01: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson An odd mix of spot-on observations and disturbing cruelty. Bryson nails the incomprehensibility of …
2015-05-27: The Shock of the Old by David Edgerton An excellent antidote to the normal narratives of invention and progress. But Edgerton isn’t a …
2015-05-18: The Restoration Game by Ken Macleod A quick, enjoyable read. Indiana Jones crossed with John Le Carré sprinkled with some Inception-like …
2015-05-15: Crawling Toward the Start Line I’ve decided to stick with the plan of working on the new novel first, and then going back to edit …
2015-05-11: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Medieval-level fantasy with goblins and elves, airships and intrigue, and race relations and gender …
2015-05-08: Pulled Even while outlining the new novel, I keep wanting to go back to the old. Especially now that I’ve …
2015-05-06: Outsiders Genre fiction has always been aimed at the Outsider, at the person with enough distance from the …
2015-05-04: 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War by Charles Emmerson Wonderfully written re-discovery of the world of 1913 via a tour of its major cities. Manages to …
2015-05-01: Encouraging News First reader review of the novel draft is in! And it’s generally positive! True, it’s from a good …
2015-04-29: Clojure/West 2015: Notes from Day Three Everything Will Flow Zach Tellman, Factual queues: didn't deal with directly in clojure until …
2015-04-28: Clojure/West 2015: Notes from Day Two Data Science in Clojure Soren Macbeth; yieldbot yieldbot: similar to how adwords works, but not …
2015-04-27: Clojure/West 2015: Notes from Day One Life of a Clojure Expression John Hume, duelinmarkers.com (DRW trading) a quick tour of clojure …
2015-04-24: Back to the Outline of the Future The presentation’s done, the conference is over. I can start turning my attention back to writing. …
2015-04-20: Rewatching: The Matrix Trilogy I was happy to find that the first movie still holds up. I think part of why it works is because it …
2015-04-17: Feeling the Itch Not writing is starting to get under my skin. The two weeks I was going to take off has turned into …
2015-04-15: Wednesday Grab Bag: Sad Puppies Background: terribleminds.com/ramble/20… whatever.scalzi.com/2015/04/0… …
2015-04-10: But who will read it? First draft of novel’s done, writing vacation is winding down. I’ve got an urge to start …
2015-04-06: The Rule of Nobody by Philip K Howard A short book that’s long on emotional arguments. The author seems to believe that merely …
2015-03-30: The Lexicographer's Dilemma by Jack Lynch Very readable history of how the rules of spelling and grammar in English have evolved over time, …
2015-03-27: Brain is Out to Lunch Decided to take two weeks off of writing. I’m one week in, and it’s only now that those …
2015-03-23: Passage by Connie Willis A frustrating book, in multiple ways. Frustrating because it’s good, it’s really good, …
2015-03-20: Achievement Unlocked The novel’s done! It’s done it’s done it’s done it’s done! Wrote the …
2015-03-16: Can't Talk Now; Writing! No real blog post today as I focus on the novel. Our intrepid protagonists are sharing a last meal …
2015-03-13: Grinding Toward The End 126,154 words. One of the characters surprised me again this week, committing an act I didn’t …
2015-03-09: How to Fix Superman Returns Having watched Superman and Superman II: The Donner Cut last year, and enjoyed them, my wife and I …
2015-03-06: Ooh, shiny! The novel’s grown to 118,051 words. Where last week felt like plummeting down the tracks in a …
2015-03-02: Cubed by Nikil Saval Weaves together a history of the architecture, interior design, politics, and sociology of the …
2015-02-27: Hold on to Your Butts www.youtube.com/watch That’s how I feel, like I’ve turned a corner in one of those old …
2015-02-23: You by Austin Grossman Another novel that makes staring at a computer screen, thinking, seem more exciting than physical …
2015-02-20: Did Not Know That About Myself 107,187 words in. I’ve heard other writers talk about how issues they didn’t know they …
2015-02-16: Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott A remarkable book. Covers not just the development of Keynes' and Hayek’s positions, but also …
2015-02-13: Still Surprising You’d think that after 97,867 words I’d have things pretty well plotted out by now, that …
2015-02-11: Re-Watching: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) As I thought watching the first one, this sequel is a better movie in all respects: a better …
2015-02-09: The Decline of Movies Browsing iTunes this weekend, I realized there were no recent movies that I wanted to watch, only …
2015-02-06: Turning the Corner That’s what it feels like. The novel’s at 91,183 words, and I feel like things are …
2015-02-04: Yes Please by Amy Poehler Very hard to characterize or sum up in any way. She’s stuffed it with essays, stories from her …
2015-02-02: Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon Interesting little book. I finished it in just over an hour, swallowing the thing whole. Part of …
2015-01-30: Not Done 83,438 words. Still not done. Close to, but not quite, 5,000 words more than last week. Well shy of …
2015-01-28: Permutation City by Greg Egan I’ve refrained from reviewing fiction on the blog for two reasons: first, I don’t want …
2015-01-26: Re-watching: Sherlock Holmes (2009) Recently re-watched Sherlock Holmes, the first of the two Guy Ritchie movies with Robert Downey, Jr …
2015-01-23: The Plans of Mice and Writers Novel broke 79,000 words this morning. That’s 5,000 more words than last week, putting me back …
2015-01-21: How to Fix: Boyhood True, it’s up for several Academy Awards. And yes, it’s an ambitious project, to film a …
2015-01-19: Your Money Ratios by Charles Farrell Repetitive in places and oddly self-promoting. Farrell adopts the grade-school method of writing: …
2015-01-16: So Many Excuses, So Little Time to Write Novel stands at almost 74,000 words as of today. That means I only got 3,000 words written this …
2015-01-14: Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive by Bruce Schneier Pickedit up because of Schneier’s awesome columns in Wired and his generally great blog posts. …
2015-01-12: Apple Woes For me, the real sign that Apple might be in trouble was when my wife upgraded her phone, and …
2015-01-09: Novel Update When I finished NaNoWriMo, I was 50,000 words deep into the novel, but it wasn’t done. I …
2015-01-07: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin Oddly inspiring. Martin doesn’t seem to take any joy in this retelling, which only covers his …
2015-01-05: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden Light and breezy, but not the puff book I cynically thought this would be. Instead, Cary’s joy …
2015-01-02: Goals for 2015 Now that my traditional New Year’s Day Hangover has come and gone, it’s time to set …
2014-12-31: 2014 In Review At the end of each year for the past five or so, I’ve written up a set of goals for the coming …
2014-12-29: Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston Simply fantastic. Houston writes incredibly well and has done his research, teasing out the true …
2014-12-19: Lessons from NaNoWriMo The novel I started for NaNoWriMo is now at 62,000 words, and I’m perhaps 2/3 of the way …
2014-12-17: Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, from 1453 to the Present by Brendan Simms Incredibly well-written. Covers nearly 600 years of European (and world) history without …
2014-12-12: Genre vs Literary Fiction How can we tell genre fiction from literary fiction? It’s not enough to add some spaceships …
2014-12-10: Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior by John Man An uneven but interesting short book about the history of ninjas. I like that he spends time …
2014-12-08: Reflections: On the Magic of Writing by Diana Wynne Jones An amazingly good book on writing, being a writer, and what it means to write fantasy in general …
2014-12-05: The Longest Story I've Ever Written …is the novel I started for NaNoWriMo this year. I say started because while I reached the …
2014-10-31: Flash Fiction Friday: Oct 31, 2014 In honor of Halloween, three personal ads with a horror twist: Missed connection: Saw you making …
2014-10-27: NaNoWriMo 2014 I’ve wanted to finish a second novel for a few years now, and never found the time to do it. …
2014-10-24: Flash Fiction Friday: Oct 24, 2014 Inspired by the tv show Review, today’s flash fiction entry is a critic’s review of my …
2014-10-22: Religious Tolerance in the Constitution Conservatives who want to make hay about the religion (or lack thereof) of the President or members …
2014-10-20: The Triple Package by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld Another controversial book that turns out to be full of bad reasoning. The central thesis is that …
2014-10-17: Flash Fiction Friday: Oct 17, 2014 Congratulations on the purchase of your new Samsung by GE™ Instant-Cook Oven™! We hope you’ll …
2014-10-15: CEOs and Surplus Value CEOs in larger companies make more not necessarily because they’re better than the people …
2014-10-13: The Role of Government Politicians that talk about their plan to grow the economy make me angry. It’s not the …
2014-10-10: Flash Fiction Friday: Oct 10, 2014 Three more three-sentence flash fiction stories, this time in the genres of Comedy, Romance, and …
2014-10-08: Politicizing the Market When did purchasing something become a political act? Most especially, when did it become the …
2014-10-06: Historical Correlation Fallacy X happened, and then Y, so Z policy was effective is a common way for writers building a narrative …
2014-10-03: Flash Fiction Friday: Oct 3 2014 Inspired by one of Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenges, I’m posting three flash …
2014-10-01: War! What is it Good For? by Ian Morris A work of amazingly bad scholarship and poor critical thinking. Morris spends the better part of 400 …
2014-09-29: Neighbors: Part Four A few days later, Wright was standing outside my door again. I looked past her, at the uniformed …
2014-09-26: Neighbors: Part Three Brian’s doubts gnawed at me all the way back from the pub. As soon as I got home I went to the …
2014-09-24: Neighbors: Part Two By the time I made it to Shakespeare’s Pub, I’d calmed down a little. Brian was already …
2014-09-22: Neighbors: Part One “Could you repeat that, sir?” I tore my eyes away from the body being wheeled out of my …
2014-09-15: Trust is Critical to Building Software So much of software engineering is built on trust. I have to trust that the other engineers on my …
2014-09-12: Cranky Old Man talks about the new Apple Watch “It tracks your exercise!" “I don’t need a watch to tell me when I’ve …
2014-09-10: The Decline of Doctor Who Earlier seasons had episodes that were standalone: the Doctor and his Companions having adventures. …
2014-09-08: How to Fix Doctor Who: Into the Dalek This episode is irredeemable. From the bad acting, the heavy-handed rehash of ideas that have been …
2014-09-05: The Persecution Fallacy Seems everyone wants to claim persecution of some sort as a way of bolstering their case. …
2014-09-03: New 60s Music Mad Men hasn’t just brought 60s fashion back into style. There’s new music being made …
2014-09-01: The Rule of Empires by Timothy Parsons Couldn’t finish it. The first two chapters can be summarized as: “We have no idea what …
2014-08-29: How to Fix Doctor Who: Deep Breath (Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead) This episode is so uneven, like a miniature version of …
2014-08-27: The Rent is Too Damn High by Matthew Yglesias Short, direct and to the point. Yglesias makes a good case that housing prices in the US are a …
2014-08-25: Chase is now available as an ebook! If you like my short story, Chase, consider grabbing an ebook copy. You’ll be buying it direct …
2014-08-22: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones Surprisingly good. Jones covers almost 300 years of history at a pace that feels perfect: not so …
2014-08-20: Chase: The Complete Series Part One: Angela Part Two: Jack Part Three: Jack Part Four: Jack Part Five: Angela Part Six: Jack …
2014-08-19: Chase, part twelve: Jack (Start with Part One) The next few days were a hell of paperwork. Blake and his suits bugged out of …
2014-08-18: Chase, part eleven: Jack (Start with Part One) There was a coma patient coming with us to the bust. We were on our way up to …
2014-08-15: Chase, part ten: Angela (Start with Part One) Little boys always look so cute when they're asleep. I watched the two of them …
2014-08-14: Chase, part nine: Jack (Start with Part One) "What do you mean, it's your case now? You're not even a cop!" The man in the …
2014-08-13: Chase, part eight: Angela (Start with Part One) I can't believe they found me. I was careful this time. I picked a runner, …
2014-08-12: Chase, part seven: Jack (Start with Part One) She coughed most of the way to the station. Kept sweating like she had a …
2014-08-11: Chase, part six: Jack (Start with Part One) "SDPD! Open up!" I waited one heartbeat, two, three. No answer. The cheap lock …
2014-08-08: Chase, part five: Angela (Start with Part One) It's almost time to leave. I can feel this body breaking down around me. The …
2014-08-07: Chase, part four: Jack (Start with Part One) Thank God, she had been. “I took the liberty of going through the …
2014-08-06: Chase, part three: Jack (Start with Part One) The Walker place was a nice little bungalow just off the 101. Easily within …
2014-08-05: Chase, part two: Jack (Start with Part One) "Got another kidnapping for you, Jack." I groaned. “This a real one, …
2014-08-04: Chase, part one: Angela I chase children. Strictly catch-and-release, though. I bag ‘em, tag ‘em, and let …
2014-07-30: The 90s Music Revival After having lived through the resurrection of the music of first the 70s, then the 80s, I’m …
2014-07-28: 'Love Your Work' is a Trap I was raised to believe there was one true career for me, one thing i could do for work that would …
2014-07-23: Batman's Beginning Last week I re-watched the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, one each night for three nights. Seeing …
2014-07-21: Star Trek and Multiculturalism I’ve been re-watching Star Trek: TNG (yes, Picard is My Captain). Yesterday I came to the …
2014-07-16: Wealth and Power by Orville Schell and John Delury Highly recommended. Takes the interesting approach of covering China’s rise over the last 200 …
2014-07-14: Hobby Lobby Ruling Undermines Pluralism The Hobby Lobby ruling didn’t make sense to me for several reasons. One thing that really …
2014-06-30: The Ruin of the Roman Empire by James J O'Donnell Worth the read, but takes a while to get going. The meat of his argument is in Part II, and you can …
2014-06-03: Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber Well worth the 400 pages. Graeber humanizes the history of debt, bringing anthropological insight to …
2014-05-29: 5 Signs You're Living in a Dystopia 1. Everyone you know is happy Is there anything creepier than a society of happy people? 2. No one …
2014-05-27: Superman II: Theatrical Release vs Donner Cut I recently discovered my wife had never seen the first two Superman movies all the way through. We …
2014-05-26: Leave Amazon Amazon's recent treatment of books from the Hatchett book group is inexcusable. For me it's the last …
2014-05-21: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré Picked it up because of the movie’s release and as my next John le Carré novel. Three …
2014-05-19: Building a Bridge with Scrum If you built a river bridge with Scrum: The roadway would be built first, because that’s the …
2014-05-15: The Passage of Power, by Robert A Caro Don’t be put off by this book’s size. Caro converts the story of Johnson’s run for …
2014-04-10: Small Words Big Differences The simple word ‘a’ can, when placed in some sentences, completely destroy their …
2014-01-17: Elementary vs Sherlock: Which is Better? Both Elementary and Sherlock offer modern takes on the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. …
2013-12-31: Same-Sex Marriage is not a religious issue Same-sex marriage is not a religious issue. It’s a legal one. When you get married, you give …
2013-12-28: How To: Fix Blank Screen on the new Nook Glowlight I bought a new Nook Glowlight soon after it came out. I’m happy with it for the most part, but …
2013-12-26: Software Engineering Lessons from NASA: Part One Long before I became a programmer, I worked as an optical engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight …
2013-03-30: How to Fail at Customer Service: UPS Edition I’ve been waiting on a delivery of books for about a week now. When I got my first notice from …
2013-03-29: Five Reasons Your Company Should Allow Remote Developers If you don’t allow your software developers to work from home, you’re not just …
2013-03-21: ClojureWest 2013: Day Three Notes Editing Clojure with Emacs: Ryan Neufeld emacs live, emacs prelude, emacs-starting-kit: for getting …
2013-03-20: ClojureWest 2013: Day Two Notes Winning the War on Javascript: Bodil Stokke catnip: beginners clojure editor in browser originally …
2013-03-19: ClojureWest 2013: Day One Notes Domain Driven Design in Clojure: Amit Rathore read the book from eric evans Lot of oop design …
2013-01-27: Rewryte.com is live! For about 8 months now, I’ve been working every Sunday morning with a good friend of mine …
2012-07-20: Why the Perfectible Job Beats the Perfect Job I’ve changed jobs a lot over the past few years. I knew it would raise eyebrows each time I …
2012-07-16: How I Failed to Get Clojure Adopted at my Workplace I’m a little obsessive about the tools I and my co-workers use. If I come into a company and …
2012-02-29: Four Things You Should Do When Starting a New (Dev) Job Your first 30 days with a company can be nerve-wracking. Your boss is watching your performance, …
2012-02-01: Five Reasons to Learn a New Programming Language You’ve landed a good job. You negotiated a high salary, plenty of vacation days, and flexible …
2012-01-17: 10 Questions Every Developer Should Ask In Their Next Interview With the market for developers so fierce, we can afford to be a little more careful about where we …
2010-12-15: How To: Sync Last Read Page Between Nook for Android and iPad Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble claim their ereaders will sync where you are in your books between …
2010-10-23: Short Review of the Pangolin Performance Ever since I gave away my trusty Macbook, I’ve been pining for a new computer. The iPad …
2010-10-14: iPad: 30 days in 30 days ago, I broke down and bought an iPad. I know, I’ve ranted and raved against …
2010-08-22: How To: Run Clojure with Clojure-Contrib Library I recently picked up Programming Clojure and started working through it, trying to wrap my head …
2010-04-30: Apple Kills Lala.com A few months ago, when Apple bought Lala.com, I didn’t panic. I thought Apple’d …
2010-04-15: The Choices I've Made Finished reading Just a Geek. Surprisingly, my experiences and feelings toward NASA parallel …
2010-04-14: What Have You Done For Me Lately? This weekend, a friend of my wife’s was gushing about how her church had just started a …
2010-04-09: 3 Careers I was going to write up a list of the differences between my three careers (optical engineering, …
2010-04-08: Facing the Past I’m reading Wil Wheaton’s Just a Geek, for two reasons: because I’ve enjoyed his …
2010-04-06: The iPad Experience: Best Buy Edition Me: Hey, iPad! Mind if I install this cool KoboBooks app I’ve heard so much about? iPad: Sure …
2010-04-06: Apple's Garden is Walled, with Locked Gates I’ve just been reminded why I left Mac for Linux. Me (to store rep): “Can I install and …
2010-02-09: How To: Change Imagefield Thumbnail Size in Drupal In Drupal, the Imagefield fieldtype comes with a built-in thumbnail generator. If you'd like to …
2009-12-31: Predictions for 2010 Everybody’s got ‘em. Here’s mine: What Will Change Radically: Ebooks. In 2009 …
2009-12-31: UNR on HP Mini 110 I’ve been thinking about trying out Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the version of Ubuntu Linux made …
2009-11-29: eReader for Android! They just released a version of the eReader software (formerly Palm eReader, then just eReader, now …
2009-08-19: Guilty as Charged Ripped from Code Complete: People who preach software design as a disciplined activity spend …
2009-04-24:
Sorting Algorithms, Part Two
The second sorting algorithm I decided to learn was the QuickSort. It’s a little more …
2009-04-23:
Sorting Algorithms, Part One
Inspired by a question from a programming interview, I’ve taken it upon myself to learn how to …
2009-04-13:
HowTo: Get Filezilla working after FTP connection drop
If you’re using Filezilla to connect to a shared hosting account that uses cPanel, and your …
2008-11-14:
How To: Install Sun Java in Ubuntu from Command-Line
Had to do a fresh install of Sun's Java on a remote Ubuntu machine this weekend. It's pretty easy to …
2008-11-05:
Hope Mingled with Despair
So, Obama won the Presidential race, making me proud to be a citizen of the USA and hopeful that we …
2008-11-04: Go Vote! Just got back from the voting booth. It's my first time to vote since the dark days of '02, and my …
2008-10-16:
Fix for Mac OS 10.5.5 Slow Internet Problem
After installing the 10.5.5 update for my Macbook, I noticed both wireless and wired internet access …
2008-09-21:
Austin GDC Notes: Day One
Here's my notes from the first day of the Austin Game Developers' Conference:
2008-09-19:
Back from Austin
Got back last night from the Austin Game Developers' Conference. The AGDC this year was amazing; …
2008-08-30: Wishes I wish celebrities over 40 were allowed to grow old gracefully, instead of being pressured to starve …
2008-08-18:
Inspiration
Noted game designer Erin Hoffman posted an absolutely amazing letter originally written by Rainer …
2008-08-13:
Haven't I Read This Before?
Absurdistan: a fat, paranoid slob has a series of misadventures. Wasn't that a book called A …
2008-08-07:
Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a vine creeping through the forest of your dreams, choking the life out of them.
2008-08-05:
Good User Interface Design
The Design of Everyday Things changed my life.
2008-08-04: Nokia N810: 3 Months In I've been using my Nokia N810 for a few months now. Though enough time has gone by for the initial …
2008-08-01: Sticky Notes for your Browser: Posti.ca If you've ever used the post-it notes in OS X's Dashboard app, you know how handy those little …
2008-07-31: VMWare Fusion Beta 2 VMWare Fusion is an application for the Mac that lets you run Windows as a virtual machine. No need …
2008-07-21: Disappointed I subscribed to the new Tor.com newsletter this year, drawn by the offer of free ebooks (without …
2008-06-27: Quoted Erin Hoffman at The Escapist put up a new article in a "Tools of the Trade" series that has a quote …
2008-06-26: Strange Horizons Needs You! …or rather, your donations! Strange Horizons is a weekly speculative fiction e-zine …
2008-06-24: A Short Quiz on Belief Found this quiz at the beginning of the wonderfully written Doubt: A History. The idea is that by …
2008-05-30: Taking the C++ Challenge This week I've decided to roll up my programming sleeves and finally learn how to program in C++. …
2008-05-23: Balticon 08: Thursday arrived in baltimore. wondered why i didn’t pack a jacket when i know they turn the a.c. on as …
2008-05-16: Sound Fix for MacBook with Ubuntu 8.04 After upgrading to 8.04, I found a strange bug: my sound worked normally from the internal speakers, …
2008-05-16: I'm a-Twitter! I’ve hopped on yet another Web 2.0 bandwagon by joining Twitter. My username’s mindbat …
2008-05-16: Scary Reading: Adobe's AIR EULA I was all set to install an application built using Adobe's AIR platform when I took a minute to …
2008-05-14: Upgrading the Macbook to Ubuntu 8.04 Bit the bullet today and upgraded to the latest Ubuntu distribution: 8.04. I decided to try the …
2008-05-13: To Balticon! Lora and I get to take a deserved break in two weeks when we go up to Balticon. It's become an …
2008-05-05: Nokia N810: First Impressions This is what my Palm TX should have been. Granted, the Palm was a good organizer and datebook. But …
2008-05-01: Shiny! I’m writing this on my brand-new Nokia N810 Internet Tablet! It’s got trainable …
2008-04-04: Turning Robo-Japanese Once again, the Japanese prove Charles Stross' assertion that “they got our future, …
2008-04-01: Happy April Fools Day! As one of the many beta testers on this new program, I highly recommend that everyone take advantage …
2008-03-24: Them's Fightin' Words Adam Maxwell, a game designer, recently posted an op-ed on Gamasutra claiming that writers …
2008-02-16: Free Markets In reading through an old copy of the Economist yesterday, I was struck by the magazine’s …
2008-02-14: Scalzi on the Business of Writing John Scalzi’s put up a couple of recent posts about the business of writing. The man knows …
2008-01-22: Fixing Filenames I use SoundJuicer to rip my music CDs into Ogg files, and play them in Rhythmbox. Both programs work …
2008-01-07: Discrimination A friend recently wrote to me about encountering her first instance of racism directed against her, …
2008-01-04: Political Matchmaking Took the matchmaking survey offered by Glassbooth. Their survey won’t find your soulmate; …
2008-01-02: How To Install Ubuntu on a Mac Pro I got my hands on a Mac Pro at work over the holiday, and the first thing I did was install Ubuntu …
2007-12-23: How To Connect to iDisk in Ubuntu For those Mac users who have switched to, or are trying out, Ubuntu Linux, here’s how to …
2007-12-23: Just Wondering Fundamentalist Christians make a lot out of saying that the Bible is the true Word of God. They use …
2007-12-22: ToT Reviews EVE The Trackball of Truth has posted a review of EVE Online that sounds all too familiar: great …
2007-12-22: Hello world! Welcome to my new home on the web! As you can see, I’ve moved everything over from theold …
2007-12-19: Oh, the Irony! I was just thinking how many cool web domain names are already taken, when I wondered, “What …
2007-12-05: Hubble to get New Eyes The New York Times reports that the Hubble will be serviced one more time next year. This is great …
2007-12-03: Amazon has WMD? Apparently, Amazon is now selling Uranium-238 Get yours now, while Nigerian supplies last!
2007-11-29: Beverage Warning Do not drink while reading this: The 9 Most Bad-Ass Bible Verses. You have been warned.
2007-11-27: Why DRM is worth fighting over Much to my chagrin, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with Neil Gaiman over the …
2007-11-23: Another Switch As part of the switch from OS X to Ubuntu, I’ve lost iTunes, and thus can’t listen to …
2007-11-12: The Nerd Handbook Dating a nerd? Married to a nerd you still don’t understand? Go forth, and read The Nerd …
2007-11-09: Now With 50% More Open-Source Made the leap today: I wiped OS X off the hard drive on my MacBook and put a fresh, clean install of …
2007-11-01: Religious crazy vs the Troops Apparently the only counter-force to crazy American fundamentalist Christians is the urge to support …
2007-11-01: Too Weird to Not be True I can’t make this kind of stuff up, people: the CEO of Budget Hotels (yes, those hotels) is …
2007-10-29: Science Skeptics Got involved in aforum discussion today about Climate Change that really depressed me. It …
2007-10-18: Freebird I’ve switched. Not from PC to Mac, but from Mac to Linux. That’s right. I’m a …
2007-09-19: Early Morning Post Took the Magic: the Gathering ‘What color are You?’ test on a whim (since I don’t …
2007-09-13: Game Tutorials Tutorials should teach you how to actually play the game, not just how to use the controls. I …
2007-09-02: Objectivity and Truth Just watched an episode of the Colbert Report where the guest spoke of needing “objective …
2007-06-07: I got a job! I applied for a writing job at a newly-formed, local, video-game developer before leaving for …
2007-06-01: Published! The new Signs & Portents roleplaying magazine is up, and the first of my Conan articles is in …