We’ll start with reading. A few weeks ago, on TrekBBS, novelist Greg Cox recommended in a discussion about alternate histories, a series by Harry Harrison and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey (writing as John Holm) — The Hammer and the Cross. The premise? The Norse religions put up more of a fight against Christianity in theContinue reading “On Reading and Writing, but Not Arthmetic”
Category Archives: Writing
On Linguistic Befuddlement
Let’s suppose there’s a word with a specific meaning, that you would use in a specific context, under a specific set of circumstances. Let’s suppose you see that word used in a related, though not identical, set of circumstances. The word is “reign.” Now, I would use the word “reign” in the context of monarchy.Continue reading “On Linguistic Befuddlement”
On New Visitors and the Like
For reasons that pass beyond my understanding, I’ve recently seen a 250% increase in the traffic to my website. I’m looking at my own behavior, as regards the website, in the past two or three weeks. I changed the website theme. I’ve been posting less. Could these be reasons? One’s choice of website layout canContinue reading “On New Visitors and the Like”
On The Writer’s Almanac
The Writer’s Almanac. It’s a public radio program distributed by American Public Media that appears on some NPR stations. Garrison Keillor spends about five minutes reading poetry, talking about interesting facts about the day in history, talking about writers who were born and died on the day in question. I like the program. But IContinue reading “On The Writer’s Almanac”
On a Letter of Rejection
I received this weekend the nicest rejection letter from the UK. At Shore Leave, I told several people that I took a chance on submitting an outline to a UK publisher for an original novel based on Merlin, the BBC series currently showing on NBC here. Yes, it was unsolicited. Yes, I wasn’t sure whatContinue reading “On a Letter of Rejection”
On Seeing It In The Wild
After a few days of not blogging, mostly because I’ve been both tired and busy, not necessarily in that order, I went out to Borders. And there I saw something that made me very happy. Star Trek Magazine #20. The cover has Jean-Luc Picard, with a Borg drone loomed in the background. A light blueContinue reading “On Seeing It In The Wild”
On a Challenging Writing Market
From now until the end of the month, editor Robert Smartwood is taking submissions for an anthology of “Hint Fiction.” What is Hint Fiction? From the submission guidelines: Its a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story. The thesis of the anthology is to prove that a story 25Continue reading “On a Challenging Writing Market”
On Today’s Word Coinage
I had to coin a word today. “Hyper-south.” I was writing some dialogue. Two characters were talking about a situation that had gone horribly wrong. “It went south,” as one might say. But then the situation, which really couldn’t or shouldn’t have gotten any worse, did. Saying it went “further south” didn’t work. It wasContinue reading “On Today’s Word Coinage”
On Merlin, Sword-Pulling, and Random Research
Last night I was talking with a friend of mine about the Todd Klein print I ordered, “Drawing the Sword.” I’ve been on a medieval kick since May. The release of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun kicked it off, then a reading of The Saga of the Volsungs to reacquaint myself withContinue reading “On Merlin, Sword-Pulling, and Random Research”
On This Week’s Musical Discovery
I’ve learned over the years that writing is occasionally less a planned activity than it is a series of serendipitous accidents. Consider the BBC’s Scotland Introducing podcast. I can’t tell you why, over a year ago, I started listening to this podcast. But I do. Every Friday, I download the new episode and give itContinue reading “On This Week’s Musical Discovery”