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So Ninjas DO Show Up on TV!

Filed under: Just For Fun, Personal, Reviews — 1 Comment
February 5, 2014

In a rare public appearance, I appeared for a TV interview this last Monday.

And I managed not to break the camera!

And I managed to not break the camera!

Having attended a press screening of The LEGO Movie on Saturday, I and fellow brick enthusiast Bret Harris were invited on Let’s Talk Live for a quick appearance to give our impressions of the film as well as show off the sort of thing you can do with Lego bricks.

As you can see in the interview, I went in expecting to be underwhelmed and wound up impressed. (That’s right, I expected a movie based on one of my hobbies to suck.) It deserves its own review, but I figured I should at least put up the interview so you can see what your friendly neighborhood novel ninja looks like and sounds like.

Yeah, I’m sorry, I should be kinder to my fans rather than subject them to me in living color. But hey . . . Lego!

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Stories with Messages

Filed under: Industry, Writing Tips — 2 Comments
January 30, 2014

Currently, the SF&F blogs are embroiled in a mild (well, for some of them, very much not mild) tizzy over whether or not stories should be written with a particular cause in mind. I’m not going to mention what the specific argument is, because 1) if you don’t already know, you probably don’t want to be involved in the first place; and 2) it really doesn’t matter, because I want to talk about cause-fiction in general.  View full article »

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What I’ve Been Doing Lately

Filed under: Just For Fun, Personal — 1 Comment
January 20, 2014

So I’ve had another period where I haven’t been posting anything, and I haven’t even been updating on the Facebook page (which you should totally like). Well, this is a major part of what’s been occupying my attention:

Hang on, I got some dust in my eye or something . . .

Hang on, I got some dust in my eye or something . . .

Now, just to be clear, that is not me in that photo. I’m the one taking it. And the radiant beauty in white is my dear friend, mutually-adopted sister, and future co-author Elizabeth Amy Hausladen.

Er, wait. Elizabeth Amy Hajek. Yeah. Got to remember that. Fortunately, she likes hearing people repeat themselves on this subject.  View full article »

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History and Stories

Filed under: Resources, Writing Tips — Leave a comment
December 30, 2013

I can go on and on about stories until my voice goes raw or my hands cramp up, depending on how I’m talking to you. Because of that, it often surprises many people that I don’t have a single degree in literature. For now, my highest degree is actually in history.

Why is that? Well, I maintain that a history degree — assuming that you’ve had a wide-ranging focus and look at many different cultures — is one of the best fields to truly teach you how to write. That’s because most lit degrees teach you about other books, but they don’t tend to teach you about people. Make no mistake, both history and stories are fundamentally about people. View full article »

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Merry Christmas

Filed under: Just For Fun, Personal — Leave a comment
December 25, 2013

That’s all.

I have reviews and advice to write for you all, and I’m continuing to respond to email from the audience. For now, though, it’s Christmas. No matter what it means to you, it means something. Merry Christmas!

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Superheroes Redesigned

Filed under: Just For Fun, Plugs and Promotions — Leave a comment
December 3, 2013

I’m not a DC Comics fan. I like Batman, but usually the rest of the universe seems . . . stilted. Yes, I enjoyed many of the animated series while I was growing up (and even more after I decided being grown-up is a bit overrated), but I just can’t get into the mythology and worldbuilding. Too many fictionalized yet supposedly “realistic” locations, too much space between “gritty” and “heroic,” too much “hey, that sounds good, let’s go with that — who’s going to think about it too deeply?” View full article »

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Agents and Heroines

Filed under: Reviews, Writing Tips — 1 Comment
December 2, 2013

It’s been a while since my last Agents of SHIELD review, which could be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm. This is true, to an extent. I haven’t been wowed. I’ve been entertained enough to give it a viewing when I need a break, but not so entertained that I feel like talking about it afterwards. I did catch up this Thanksgiving, though, so I figured I’d write a review. Spoilers ahead if you care about that, mainly for the episode “The Well.”  View full article »

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Submission Stress

Filed under: Editing, Industry, Publishing, Writing Tips — 1 Comment

One of my authors just submitted a book. Well, I say she’s one of mine, but so far we haven’t engaged in actual financial business. She’s an old friend that I give advice to and help craft things. I haven’t had time to go over her book, but I’ve seen her writing and I hand-picked her for an upcoming series I’m managing next year (so she will be one of my authors, officially, in about six months). I’ve also helped her craft her cover letter, pitch, and so on.

She just bit the bullet on a submission she’s been putting off for literally years now. Now she has to wait for up to a year to get a response. It can be an intimidating thing. In fact, it can be a stressful thing — for good reason, though not a “good enough” reason. View full article »

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The Day of the Doctor (Spoiler-Free Review)

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November 25, 2013

In my last post, I mentioned how I have not been impressed with Steven Moffat as a showrunner, and that perhaps his talents are best suited to doing single episodes. I’ll also add that taking direction from someone else and making their work better might also be in his talents, because in this special episode he takes a lot of inconsistencies from RTD’s run as head writer and explains them into one coherent whole (or at least as coherent as a time-travel show is likely to get, no matter who is writing it). View full article »

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Fifty Years of Doctor Who

Filed under: Reviews — Leave a comment
November 24, 2013

Well, dear readers, it’s the weekend to talk about Doctor Who. I thought I’d share a little bit about my own personal experiences with the show.

Once upon a time in the United States, a man could walk down the street in a brown coat, floppy hat, and a ridiculously long multicolored scarf, and fully expect that no one would recognize who he was supposed to be. Today . . . well, most people wouldn’t recognize him, but that’s only because he’s not wearing a bowtie.

I’m an old-school fan. I started in the 90s, during the sixteen-year hiatus, when getting Doctor Who back on the air seemed less likely than getting new episodes of Firefly today. Yes, dear readers, there was such a dark age of television. Back then, Doctor Who was nearly unheard-of in the United States, and even today plenty of people here will refer to Christopher Eccleston as “the first Doctor.” They certainly wouldn’t get the Doctor Who reference slipped into the finale of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  View full article »

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