Shiny and pretty

I am not usually transfixed by shiny expensive things. I’m sure that Plus One would offer a differing viewpoint, but really, apart from the Apple items, the lovely Mont Blanc pen that I’m coveting, the nice new phone I got recently–
Oh hell. I am transfixed by shiny expensive things. When the hell did this happen?
Regardless, [...]

I could teach you, but I’d have to charge

That’ll be $435.10, please. To find out why, see Karen.

Wait, wasn’t I tagged? I think so. Who? When? Huh? Is this thing on?

I realized at some point today that someone tagged me for something (demolition not being among the possibilities I considered). After a bit of searching I recalled it was Huntington and the assignment goes thusly:
1. Find the nearest book. (OK, I did that.)
2. Name the book & the author. (Through It Came Bright [...]

True confession

And I don’t mean Bananarama or my illicit fascination with Star Trek toys. (More about both of those, perhaps, later.) No, this confession is something else entirely.
I used to write vampire stories. I wrote three of them before I set the characters aside because, while I knew what I was doing with them, I didn’t [...]

Breakthrough

Back in this post, Alex made a comment that I thought was insightful, but I didn’t realize just how much until I was sitting in bed reading last night, and I finally figured out something Very Important about the book that is goin to change just about everything from page 70 onward. Of course, it’s [...]

Obituary

It seems recently that we should have mourned, but did not, the untimely passing of two things, the absence of which has made modern life much too coarse and colorless: manners, and a sense of humor.
Discuss.

Who are these characters and why won’t they leave me alone?

I’ve heard all sorts of analogies comparing writing a short story to writing a book, things like STORY:NOVEL as 10K:MARATHON. I’m coming to think that it’s not so much like a marathon as it is like a five-year trek across the desert with only a vague idea of what’s on the other side. Mind you, [...]

Sold out

Of its first print run, that is. Word came from one of the editors yesterday that the publisher has ordered a reprint as well. Happiness!

iWant

I realize this has very little to do with writing. Sue me. I am a bit drooly over this.

I may want it even more than a Mont Blanc. (Aha! That’s a writing instrument, therefore iPhone=writing related. I can justify anything. Really. Go ahead. Ask me to justify something else.)

On my shopping list

“American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America” by Chris Hedges comes out tomorrow. Judging from this interview at salon.com, it sounds like a book I want to read. At the end of the interview he says: “I wouldn’t describe myself as particularly pious but I certainly would describe myself as religious. And [...]