On this last day of 2014, I wanted to take a moment to look back over the year in writing and creative pursuits. I didn’t accomplish nearly what I’d hope. But there were some nice surprises on here as well. I wrote the first 200 pages of The Iron Harvest, …
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I don’t know if you’re familiar with the show, but let me tell you a little bit about Veronica Mars. The show—featuring a high school detective with sass and grit—was surprisingly adult, and surprisingly fun. Somehow it balanced real drama with sharp wit and banter reminiscent of a 1940s noir. …
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In 2007, I decided that it was time to get back into writing. I’d written novels throughout high school and college, roughly one every 18 months. But when I graduated from college, I found it was hard to keep writing. I didn’t have a desk in my first apartment, I …
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Comics without covers As I kid, I read a bunch of comic books. Actually, scratch that. I had a collection of a few dozen comic books, but I just read them over and over again. None of them had covers. And it’s not because I was a destructive child.
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There’s an interesting website I’ve been reading for a little while called “The Pastry Box.” It’s an assembly of essays, squibs, and reflections that started with a web/tech/design focus that has evolved substantially from there. I was honored they published my piece “The timelessness of parenting” on their site today. …
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My last two letters sent via TinyLetter touch on many topics–from chess to the 1939 World’s Fair to transistors on a computer chip. But they actually go together quite well because they both are about the iPhone in one way or another. How we make calls, how the phones stack up against old …
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I thought this was an intriguing project and I wanted to share it here before the Indiegogo campaign wrapped up. Erik Jorgensen is working on bringing the “lost archives” of Frank Herbert to light. Herbert’s writing as a journalist is not nearly as well known as his masterwork Dune, of course. …
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Two months ago, I discovered that some fellow indie writers were creating a “flash fiction” anthology that would span genres. I was very interested. The main stipulation: all stories had to be under 1,000 words. One thousand words really isn’t a lot. (The Lead Cloak is more than 100 times as long) …
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I know a lot of authors who have self-published and a lot of authors who have traditionally published (and several who have found an in-between route). Brent Hartinger, my co-host on Media Carnivores, has done both, so together we were able to have a really interesting podcast discussion about this …
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With the rise of drones, we’re becoming a lot more conscious of how little robots are interacting with us in everyday life. Recently Mary and I watched an interesting and funny film about that very topic set in the near future called Robot and Frank. Frank is dealing with some …
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