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War of the Worlds

Filed under: Just For Fun — Leave a comment
October 30, 2013

Now, live on your radio, we bring you the latest from the alien invasion. But first, these messages.

It’s been a really busy month for me. I’ve got posts I want to write, but between work and my new physical therapy program (which is doing wonders for my mobility), I’ve fallen behind on nearly everything. I’ll hopefully be caught up next week and start doing more blogging.

However, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the 75th anniversary of the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938. It’s not only a wonderful production (seriously, listen to it if you have the chance; I have it on old-fashioned cassettes, so I should get a digital version myself sometime soon), but it’s even more notable for the panic it caused. View full article »

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Agents of SHIELD and Superpowers

Filed under: Reviews, Writing Tips — 1 Comment
October 4, 2013

Sorry, Marvel. ALL heroes are super.

“Superpower” is a technical term used by some writers and editors, myself included. It’s awkward when used in superhero fiction, but generally speaking it’s a great term packed with a lot of information.

Your protagonist must have a superpower. Your secondary characters usually need them too. Your villain always has a superpower, but an antagonist doesn’t always need it. (Yes, there’s a difference between a villain and an antagonist. There’s also a difference between main characters, protagonists, heroes, and viewpoint characters, but that’s another blog post.) It’s advisable to have a kryptonite as well, but that’s not as important as long as you’ve practiced.

So what is this superpower thing? Flight? Super-strength? The ability to leap tall buildings faster than a speeding bullet while running alongside a train?

It can be, but it’s not necessarily supernatural. A character’s superpower is defined as anything they can do better than anyone else in the story. Similarly, a character’s kryptonite is that which forms an obstacle they cannot overcome. View full article »

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Highs and Lows

Filed under: Writing Tips — Leave a comment
October 3, 2013

You may have heard of the phrases “high fantasy” and “low fantasy.” Or perhaps you haven’t; while they’re used very commonly in an academic sense, they aren’t as common outside those circles. As is so often the case, this leads to some confusion in the definitions. And so I decided to give you a quick overview of the topic. That’s what this blog is for, after all! View full article »

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Agents of SHIELD

Filed under: Reviews — 4 Comments
September 25, 2013

At the risk of guys in black suits coming for me, I’ll tell you what I know about Agents of Shield.

Light spoilers ahead. If you want to know about the show without getting the plot of the first episode completely ruined, this is for you.

View full article »

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Literary Character Quiz

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September 23, 2013

Just for fun, I thought I’d post ABE Books’ Literary Character Quiz. Who did you get? I got Sherlock Holmes. I am not unhappy with this result.

I can actually see this as pretty helpful when building your own characters. Put them in the quiz and find out who is most like them in literature., and then tweak your characters accordingly. Feel like your character is too much like that more famous one? You can fix that. Want to increase the resemblance? You can do that too.

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Happy Hobbit Day!

Filed under: Just For Fun — 2 Comments
September 22, 2013

It’s September 22nd, Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday. This is officially Hobbit Day for fans.

It’s also my niece’s birthday. Happy birthday, Emily!

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It’s Frightful Friday Again!

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September 13, 2013

I just thought I’d share an amusing story for today: airplane passengers take Flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th.

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Kitchen Chemistry

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September 12, 2013

I’m not usually one for rom-coms. Of course, I have nothing against them per se — and I’m a complete romantic sap in real life. But your average romantic comedy usually doesn’t appeal to me because they’re generally quite predictable and need to be based around some central element that makes them stand apart.  View full article »

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Farewell, Ann Crispin

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September 6, 2013

There are great, well-known, household-name authors that we credit with shaping our ideas of fiction. And for every one of those, there are many more that even our friends haven’t heard us talk about. For me, one of those was A. C. Crispin.

Mind you, many of my friends and authors have heard me quote some of her advice, but I rarely go around talking about her actual fiction. It feels like a disservice, even though I know there are so many books and authors out there that we can’t get to every one of them. And yet, Ann Crispin was one of my favorite authors in my teen years, and she had a deep and abiding influence on my writing style and how I approach editing.

Plus, her StarBridge series had one book that featured a deaf heroine. Very rare in fiction, much less SF&F. My hearing problems weren’t as frustrating back then, but it was a nice thing to have. And I should reread it, because it’s been years.

Today, September 6th, Ann Crispin lost her battle with cancer. I never got to meet her, and I wish I did.

An author’s estate always experiences a posthumous bump in sales. It’s not ghoulish. She’s most famous for her Star Trek and Star Wars installments, but she’s got a hefty bibliography to her credit. Check out her books and buy some. If nothing else, you’ll be providing a little extra income for her husband, who just lost the woman he loved and really shouldn’t have to worry about money right now.

And for everyone, prayers don’t cost a thing. I bet they could both use some right now.

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Like High School, but with Video Games

Filed under: Reviews — 1 Comment
August 31, 2013

VGHSImagine, if you will, an alternate world of the near future. A world where video games have become more popular than any other form of entertainment. A world where high school varsity teams revolve not around physical sports but instead around computer-generated scenarios. A world where every teen dreams of being accepted to . . . Video Game High School.

Okay, so that’s enough of me channeling Rod Serling.  View full article »

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