Tag Archives: Writing

A Russian immigrant’s musings on utopia

My friend and co-author, Marina Fontaine blogs about her upcoming story, Exile in the soon to be released MAGA:2020 & Beyond. When I first heard of a pro-Trump anthology intended to show the bright side of Trump’s election, I was curious about the concept, but had no thought of contributing. For one, stories of aContinue reading “A Russian immigrant’s musings on utopia”

Coming Nov. 8, 2017…Dolus Magnus: The Great Hoax

The first time I heard the term, GIGO, was in my machine language class—no, we weren’t using abaci or slide rules (we’d given those up the year before). It’s an acronym that stands for “garbage in, garbage out” and it’s meant to convey the simple idea, that no matter how good your algorithm, if theContinue reading “Coming Nov. 8, 2017…Dolus Magnus: The Great Hoax”

My first post at superversivesf.com

Check out my first post for the wonderful people at Superversive SF. –Hard Sci-fi Made Me Cry– Tired of the remakes, the reboots, the “let’s see how much more blood we can squeeze out of this turnip” output of today’s Hollywood? I think you’ll find Passengers a refreshing change.

Learning experience: The right way to do first person

I just finished reading Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever, the first book in her Fever series. Two things precipitated the purchase: recommendation from a friend and part of my continuing education (specifically following Dean Wesley Smith’s advice to read for pleasure and then study the pleasurable reads from long-time, best-selling authors). Moning’s Darkfever met both thoseContinue reading “Learning experience: The right way to do first person”

More on serving the needs of drama

In fiction, flashbacks are scenes that take place in the past (i.e. not current/running story time) and some readers (supposedly) hate them so much they skip them. Here’s a great “flashback” from L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright, on “…the constant struggle between the efforts to entertain and the efforts to spread a message.”  Even if you’re the kind ofContinue reading “More on serving the needs of drama”

Seeing the light on romance

I have to admit, the last person I thought I’d see with an essay in Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series was L. Jagi Lamplighter. I’d read several of the books in the Anita Blake series after a co-worker got me hooked. I did not stay a devotee of the series. I honestlyContinue reading “Seeing the light on romance”

When words don’t add up

I understand word count limitations. I really do. After administering a contest, how could I not? First, you have to be able to do an apples-to-apples comparison, and second, there are still–despite numerous sacrificial offerings consisting of REM cycles, fluffy cotton sheets, and clock parts–only 24 hours in a day. So here I am, happilyContinue reading “When words don’t add up”