The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
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That was EPIC!
The fastest way to start a literary nerd fight? Say X fantasy book is/is not epic fantasy. Epic fantasy may be the poorest defined genre currently being published1. I think this is a result of the ’80s/’90s where almost all fantasy published was epic fantasy. Epic fantasy was so pervasive within the genre that epic…
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Hellllooooooooo Nurse!
What’s that? Julia Stiles is in an ad for Stoli vodka, and she’s plastered all around Boston North Station? What’s that? My train is boarding? Ummmm, I think I’ll take the next one. I could sit here awhile longer.
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Stranger in a Strange Land
It’s a fair bet most of your writer friends aren’t your real-world friends. They’re online. The internet has been a terrific tool for us to gather and discuss and be. You may have been trapped previously with those that said they wanted to write, but whose offerings amounted to nothing more than literary masturbation, taking…
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Finding New Meaning in Old Emotions
A scenario. Your character has: Given up professional and post-graduate dreams to aid a friend Moved to a new city to aid said friend Then been let down by said friend Which resulted in the loss of your character’s entire circle of friends, who had really been said friend’s friends Only speaks to his ex-fiancee…
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My people, they have but one bunghole
Extra extra extra tired today. Thus I talk to anyone and everyone to keep myself awake. This does not lead to quality work, but does lead to some fun creativity. Follow this thought process: I’m talking to my friend Michelle. She says she needs to go eat lunch before she passes out. I keep talking…
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Dream a Little Dream of Me
In my last semester of college, I participated in one of the most influential classes of my university career: Senior Theatre Capstone. It was a discussion course required to graduate with a theatre degree (every arts degree had one: I took something similar for my English degree). It was lead by the department head and…
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POV to the FACE!
Elizabeth Poole was talking about having double first person in her current WIP. Meaning, she has two main characters and each of them narrate their part of the story from a first-person POV. I warned against this as a style that required IMMENSE precision. If you do not perfectly nail this kind of writing, it’s…
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Wind Sprint: WHAT’S BEHIND THE CROOKED DOOR?
This story began as a ponderance. I thought of it from time to time. It sat in my brain like a seed. Will it sprout or will it just lay there? It sprouted a little, but I doubted enough to make a story out of it. My wife then asked me what I was talking…
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Wind Sprint: THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE
I’m not keen on giving up on a manuscript, but sometimes a thing is broke so bad it can’t be fixed1. THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE was a manuscript I abandoned because it was all wrong. There were a few chapters I enjoyed (the introductions of the tinkers), but it boiled down to Cheshire getting off his…
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Wind Sprints
I wrote the first draft of THE TRIAD SOCIETY. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t bad necessarily. It just wasn’t the story I set out to write. The story I had planned was this huge intricate intrigue that spanned the politics of the university, the city, the kingdom! And in the end, a meeting made…
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I’ll Make a Bajillion Dollars!
So, as we all know, the reason there is still resistance to the ebook is because some people worry about losing their pretension. How can one prove that one is better than those around one if they cannot see that the book one is reading is clearly far beyond the reading level of everyone else…