So I’m working toward my Masters of Science in Instructional Design and Technology (how to make education better, basically) and I’ve found that I can’t write a research paper every week, do my regular job, and write a novel all at the same time. However, I have a three-month break coming up, starting next week, and…
My wife and I are big fans of the Starz original series, Black Sails. She’s never read Treasure Island nor played Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag (which we’ll count as research for purposes of this show 😉 ), so it’s all new to her. But seeing Flint, Silver, and Billy Bones all together is wicked exciting.…
Like most geeks, I hopped on board the 2004 Battlestar Galactica sensation. Like fewer, I was still a stalwart fan of the original series. And perhaps on my own, I still prefer the original to the reboot. The original series was what it was and it did what it was very well. The reboot showed…
I don’t look forward to the day physicists figure out what dark energy is. Right now it’s this “We know it’s there, but we don’t know what it is” thing, so writers can make it whatever they want and only “You can’t do that with science” assholes will get upset. This must be like how…
I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of A Show with Ze Frank on YouTube. As part of the show, an artist animates dreams submitted by viewers. Their experiences are SO different than how I dream. I dream stories like I’m watching a movie or sometimes living as one of the characters but always…
I’ve been bumbling around a concept for a few weeks and while I was watching “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” (which you should totally watch, because it’s awesome), a few lines popped into my head and I figured I should write them down before I go to bed. So here they are: Victoria wasn’t always…
Louisa Walker named her daughter Beth after Beth March of Little Women. Louisa May Alcott was her namesake and Beth the character that inspired her to play the piano, so it seemed only fitting that she should name her eldest after the character that meant so much to her. If only she knew the influence of names…
So at any given time, I have a number of stories forming in my brain and existing at different stages of doneness. The most immediate story is the one I’m querying at the moment. After that is the one I’m actively writing. Third comes the one in the “hopper,” the one that shows the most…
I just finished watching John Leguizamo’s HBO special, Ghetto Klown. It’s pretty awesome, especially if you like auto-biographies. What I liked most was his characterization of his father. Well, I liked a lot of it, but what I found most inspiration from a creative sense was his characterization of his grandfather. A Colombian communist who…
I tell Liz Poole all the time that I’m never going to write Urban Fantasy. But an opening line while I was driving from physical therapy gave me an idea for a character that turned an espionage thriller plot I had been ruminating on into a genuine urban fantasy. The original espionage was inspired by…