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Crossing the Equator 3: Why “she said” is divine, and about adverbs.
[W]hile to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine. — Stephen King in On Writing. In writing, one can fall for guidelines-cum-misrules that novices over-learn. “Don’t end a...
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Crossing the Equator 4: Small x Large, Publishing, and St. Petersburg Math
From the title, it doesn’t sound like this is an essay about writing. It is. More generally, it’s about successes and failures in publicity, and the mathematics involved. Pop quiz: What’s a small...
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Crossing the Equator 5: Natural Writers
There are a large number of intelligent, well-intended people who “might write a novel” someday. Spoiler alert: they won’t. I’m not trashing them. The world needs more readers, much more than it needs...
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Swamp Baseball
My warning meant nothing | You’re dancing in quicksand… — Tool, “Swamp Song”, 1993 Swamp Baseball is like regular baseball, but with a few changes: You play in a muddy bog. Outfielders can fall into...
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Crossing the Equator 6: Villains in Fantasy Versus Real Life
I open Farisa’s Courage with the heroine running for her life. Her memory is breaking down (a consequence of her magic, when used too far) and she’s confused, desperate, exhausted. In an unknown city,...
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Phishing/Hacking Attempt
In April, I got an email about a CTO-level position. It was a personalized message. The person writing it knew who I was and my capabilities. Naturally, I checked it out. It never hurts to talk to...
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America’s 4th Phase
The United States, I would argue, has had three distinct phases: Citizen America, Producer America, and Consumer America. We’re heading into an unknown fourth one. In this light, it’s useful to...
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Crossing the Equator 7: What Is Bad Writing?
Bad writing. I bring the topic up not to mock bad writing, because it’s rarely worth the time, and also because most of the sins of bad writing have also been committed by good writers, either when...
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Evil, and its relationship to the tech industry.
Earlier tonight, I read something that I wrote on the Internet a few years ago. I won’t link to it. I regret it. It was an impulsive, not-very-coherent “wall of text” post on a message board. It...
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Smart People Are Not Ruining America
Someone sent me an article by David Brooks, “How We Are Ruining America“. Brooks is a conservative columnist, and a capable writer with interesting ideas, but my issue with him is not that he’s...
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Aug. 2, 2017 Farisa update
To my mortal embarrassment, I declared in April that Farisa’s Courage was “revision complete”. Hahaha. I suppose that one can take liberties regarding what is revision and what is editing, but… let’s...
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Card game vignette
“The one, the ace, the spy… now why do they rank it high?” “You’re a poet, Mazie!” Farisa, who hadn’t had a drip of decent drink for weeks, buzzed a smile. “Hey!” Mazie tied her hair back, perhaps...
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Farisa’s Crossing blurb (as of Sept. 21, 2017).
Farisa’s Crossing is the first novel in a series (“The Antipodes”) featuring a strong female protagonist, circa-1895 (“steampunk”) technology, and mysterious sorcery. It’s undergoing heavy revision and...
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Beta Reader Questionnaire; also 4 Beta Reader Slots Left for Farisa’s Crossing.
Quick order of business: I have 4 beta reader slots left for Farisa’s Crossing, which I intend to be publishing some time after Oct. 1, 2018. I’ll be offering between 1 and 15 Signed First Editions...
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Literary Fiction: Bullshit?
No. Writing is often about balancing parentheses, charge-and-discharge, and I thought it tasteful to discharge that one quickly. Is literary fiction bullshit? Charge. No. Discharge. To be clear, I’m...
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Crossing the Equator 6: Villains in Fantasy Versus Real Life
I open Farisa’s Courage with the heroine running for her life. Her memory is breaking down (a consequence of her magic, when used too far) and she’s confused, desperate, exhausted. In an unknown city,...
View ArticleCrazy Is Better Than Stupid
Something I’ve observed in the corporate world is that most people lose intelligence and creativity after 5 to 10 years. Sometimes they burn out even faster. The flame goes out; a robot stands where a...
View Article2017 Revealed Executive Predators in Entertainment; High Water Mark for...
I made the joke earlier that, at the end of 2016, someone asked God to stop killing celebrities. She listened, and spent 2017 revealing the creeps. This could be– I use the words could be, because...
View ArticleThe Seasonality of Workplace Conflict
January is supposed to mark the beginning of a new year, and yet as I get older, I’m shocked by how little changes from year to year. We don’t have flying cars, we still die of the same diseases at...
View ArticlePanic, Office Work, and What Each Taught Me
I have panic disorder. I get mild-to-moderate anxiety attacks two to five times per week, disruptive panic attacks about once per month, and the severe kind that wear me out (a “go-homer”) every six...
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