Ugh

It’s amazing how a lack of sleep can feel like a hangover. Last night was One of Those Nights. You know how it is–you go to bed at a reasonable hour, maybe read for a little bit, talk to the spouse, and then you drift and float off to dreamland. And then you wake up. […]

Musical Monday: Across The Universe

Attributed to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, I’m pretty sure this one was John all the way. This song is gorgeous in its use of language. “Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe” This is one of my all-time favorites. Thanks to […]

The Book of the Future

“Can it core a apple?” “Oh, it can core a apple!” Those lines come from a classic episode of The Honeymoonerstitled “Better Living Through TV.” In it, Ralph buys time during a movie broadcast and appears as The Chef of the Future, presenting a tool—The Handy Housewife Helper—that will revolutionize the kitchen, a tool that […]

This Just In

I have been informed by Matt at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment that my query for Parallel Lives is up for review. So light your torches, sharpen up your pitchforks, and get your red and blue pencils ready. Read it today, tear it up tomorrow. That will give me all weekend to lick my wounds […]

The WiP Whip

I need a WiP Whip.  Hard to believe that a month ago I was complaining about being stuck in the middle of my WiP. I had a beginning. I had a middle. In fact, at 75K words in, I was past the middle. I should have been wrapping it up, bringing things to a thrilling […]

Information Overload

“Too much of everything is just enough” — I Need A Miracle, John Perry Barlow/Bob Weir At some point in the latter stages of the last century–and trust me, though we are now a decade into the twenty-first century, I still think of ‘the last century’ as meaning the 1800’s–we entered THE INFORMATION AGE. It […]

Severus Snape, On Writing

Little-known fact: In addition to his long, illustrious career as Potions Master, his brief, but notable tenure as Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, and his regrettable term as Headmaster, Severus Snape also taught Creative Quilling 101, a course for literary-minded witches and wizards at Hogwarts. Here he is, answering Harry Potter’s question, How do […]

The Wing Man

First, before anything else, I must acknowledge the passing of arguably ‘the greatest sci-fi writer in history’ (though he would no doubt argue with the designation ‘sci-fi writer’), Ray Bradbury earlier this week. He was apparently writing pretty much to the end. You will be missed. Next, this post is not about a guy running […]

A Quote

At the end of last week we watched V for Vendetta, a 2005 film based on a graphic novel. It was a fine film, a great blend of action, ideas, and a bit of romance. A number of things said in the film stood out, but perhaps none (for me) more than this from early […]

The Ick Factor

One of the more interesting and simultaneously repulsive animals I have ever encountered is the Mudpuppy, (Necturus maculosis, for you science geeks out there). The Mudpuppy, known in some places as the Waterdog, is a large, wholly aquatic salamander. How large? The can grow to about 16 inches long, which is about the length of […]