March 2013
1 post
3 tags
I finally have to prove something to someone......
Been a long time since I posted here, but it is Supervillain-related, so here goes.
The title of this piece is very deliberately chosen. I was initially going to call it “I finally have something to prove to someone,” but that’s not accurate and the distinction is important.
Artistically speaking, “having something to prove” is a very undefined, amorphous concept....
November 2012
4 posts
1 tag
A NaNoWriMo Poem
Last night
I tried to write
and out of spite
I couldn’t quite
resist the thrall
of Slumber’s call
so while I slept
my word count wept.
Argh. Animated gifs.
I liked the Dracula thing enough to reblog it, but now looking at that gif over and over again is making me queasy. I’m going to have to post nine more times in order to push it off the screen.
So… eight more after this.
3 tags
Tony Harris, A Summary
So over on Eviscerati.Org I go into more detail on my thoughts concerning Tony Harris, his rant, and why he’s a tool. But it occurs to me that in doing so I was overlooking a very important service to the Internet.
Some people want to know exactly what this guy is going on about, but they don’t want to have to actually read his screed. Some of you might want a breakdown of his general...
September 2012
2 posts
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and...”
– Ursula Le Guin (via force—field)
“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go...”
– Harlan Ellison
August 2012
1 post
3 tags
Curveball Issue One: Death of a Hero, Parts 1 and...
July 2012
2 posts
3 tags
I Finally Found a Compelling Argument against...
In the tumultuous, vicious, and often petty warring between the Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing factions, I have, for the most part, managed to stay out of the back-and-forth. I self publish, so I’m part of that camp by default, but I haven’t been interested in the overall war, and the criticisms levied against self-publishing have never really stung. But today I finally...
3 tags
June 2012
3 posts
How to tell if you’re a troll — TheBloggess.com →
I need to preface this:
1. I think Wil Wheaton is awesome.
2. I don’t disagree with his post, nor do I disagree with the article he links to. At least, not to any great degree.
But I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around the idea that Wil Wheaton is linking to an article on a Gawker site that has, as its premise “people need to be less cynical and try being...
May 2012
18 posts
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 16
Decisions and...
Real Script Edit: Tales of Suspense #1
comicbookeditor:
This is just hilariously overwrought. I’m honestly not sure what James Robinson was thinking when he wrote this. The man wrote New Krypton, but this is… just read it.
[Zoom and Enhance]
Spoiler Alert: They. did.
2 tags
My e-Collection of Charles Williams is Complete......
Charles Williams is my favorite Inkling. He quite possibly may be my favorite author. One of the things I’m most proud of is that I have (I believe) all of his fiction as print books (cheap paperbacks, but whatever, you take what you can get). Someday I hope to meet Neil Gaiman and convince him to sign my copy of All Hallow’s Eve. My passion for Charles Williams is directly...
Fake Movie Edit: The Avengers by Frank Miller
comicbookeditor:
This is how I see Frank Miller’s writing. I won’t even qualify that with “Batman: Year One was good.” Sure, it was good. If you like sexism and despair.
[Zoom and Enhance]
Fake Script Edit: Ant-Man #1
comicbookeditor:
This came about after reading Spider-Man: The Other. JMS has written some amazing things. The Other… wasn’t one of them.
[Zoom and Enhance]
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 15
“The...
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 14
“Missing...
1 tag
I'm Not Here To Pick A Fight
I’m not here to pick a fight, but it seems like a lot of self-publishers are.
Tactically, it makes sense. If you cast yourself in the role of the plucky underdog struggling against the oppressive overlords, well, that’s a good story. People love that kind of narrative, and if people like your narrative, they’ll look at you more closely. When you’re starting out, alone, unknown, ignored by...
2 tags
Success Requires Stupidity
OK, bear with me on this one.
For the last few days I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather—a cold, a sore throat, nothing particularly debilitating but enough of an impediment to make my work day miserable.
In a somewhat unrelated fact, I’ve needed to clean the basement for months. A while back one of my dogs, Pandora, died—she was a very, very old dog, and at one...
Tech Support?
So… Um.
Just after I posted my last article I tried to (unsuccessfully) make a change to my site template and promptly lost all my comments.
Now, I didn’t have a lot of comments on my site but I mourn their loss nonetheless. They were my children: I named them and cherished them and dreamed of the day they grew up and became doctors. Or married doctors, or even a lawyer or two,...
1 tag
(Why I Have Problems With) Writing Women Well
A much earlier, less complete version of this essay can be found on my Google+ account, from about a year back. What’s funny is that the essay back then had pretty much the same opening—DC Comics manages to remain relevant. Poor bastards.
DC Comics has become something of a punching bag—deservedly so, in my opinion—because people have noticed that the way women are, on the whole, being portrayed...
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 13
“The Fourth...
2 tags
Going the Full Doctorow: What Not to Expect From...
Eleven years ago Cory Doctorow released a book called Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. What was unique for the time was that not only was it published under a traditional publisher (Tor), but it was also published under a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives license directly on his website, allowing people to stop by his site and download it for free. What did it mean? It meant that...
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 12
“Gray...
2 tags
Aeschylus, James Dean, William Shatner, and...
When I was in college and majoring in theatre I had an opportunity to listen to a short clip of a very old recording of a performance of Oedpius Rex. When I say “very old” I mean the recording dated from just before the 1900s, and I was curious to hear what the performance what like. The actor, whose name I can’t remember, was apparently very highly regarded in his day, so it was a chance to hear...
2 tags
The Points Between - Chapter 11
Benefactors
2 tags
SF Is Better Than Every Other Genre Imaginable,...
Before I begin, let me explain to you, dear reader, exactly why I am eminently qualified to talk about this, and why, based on my impeccable credentials, you should immediately agree with me and accept, uncritically, every word in this essay:
Glad we cleared that up. Let’s get started.
Science Fiction, Fantasy – whatever. Let’s call it Speculative Fiction, since that seems to be the...
April 2012
9 posts
Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants... →
In 2007, the then-president of the Science Fiction Writer’s Association declared that people who wrote and published content on the Internet for free were “webscabs” and “Pixel-Stained Technopeasants.” After some consideration, everyone who was doing it agreed enthusiastically.
1 tag
“He lay in the dead silence of the room, listening intently for anything that...”
– Still working on Chapter 18 of The Points Between, but this is part of the text I’m keeping.
How much money for what?
I want to make something perfectly clear — I think J.K. Rowling is a good writer. I loved the Harry Potter books. I think her success is well deserved many times over. And I think it’s great that she’s writing more things.
All that said, I won’t pay $19.99 for an eBook.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/THE-CASUAL-VACANCY-ebook/dp/B007THA4FI
Seriously. I wouldn’t pay...
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 10
...
3 tags
Why I feel old: does everything HAVE to be edgy?
So Superman is going to be “edgy like the Dark Knight.”
This isn’t specifically about that, but that is a prime example of what this is about. Namely: why are so many people obsessed with changing straight-up “hero stories” into some kind of dark-and-edgy re-interpretation?
Don’t get me wrong, I like edgy. I like characters who are mired in the dirt of the...
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 9
The Tower
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast, Chapter 8
Persephone
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 7
The Chapel...
March 2012
14 posts
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 6
Ghost...
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 5
Daylight
2 tags
“Ktk expressed doubt that his sister could really be that bad, no matter how...”
– Pay Me, Bug! Chapter 8
WHEREIN Our Hero, Confronted With the Threat of Impending Family, reacts in a Measured and Appropriate Fashion
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 4
Dusk
Guns & Gadgetry
So here’s the thing. In the fantasy genre you have Epic Fantasy, which is your basic world-shaking scenario where the protagonist must overcome incredible odds in order to save everything that is good in the world. In the fantasy genre you also have Swords & Sorcery, which is a story about a protagonist trying to get by in a fantastical world possibly populated by monsters, and perhaps...
The Points Between Podcast, Chapter 3
Dust
2 tags
The Points Between Podcast, Chapter 2
The Party
2 tags
“Space travel is the sublime art of hurtling through a nearly empty void, and...”
– Pay Me, Bug! Chapter 1
WHEREIN the Woods, Noting Our Hero’s Sudden Departure, Resolve to Give Chase 