The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
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Musings and Other Thoughts
My wife and I have resumed our Christmas tradition (after a year off due to the economy) of spending a few days up in the White Mountains at a bed and breakfast. Nearby is one of New Hampshire’s historical covered bridges. They’re historical because these things are over two hundred years old. And I drive…
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Inspiration Strikes Like LIghtning
It’s not a good idea to wait on inspiration, but when it strikes, you grab that shit and hold on. It can be a winning lottery ticket, and if you tell it to wait until later, you might never get to scratch off those numbers and hit the big score. /simile I was leaving work…
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The Invisible Friend
This might work better as a short story than a novel, but it’s an intriguing idea I want to write down before I forget. I was watching a record on Hit Record (or perhaps it was this one) and started to think about Peter Pan’s shadow. It’s not often you see a shadow articulated away…
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Candy: A List
We had a poor turn-out this year for Halloween, which means we have left-over candy, which means I’ve been eating left-over candy. Here are the best name-brand candies out there. You may have your own, different list, but it’s wrong. 😉 1. Reece’s Pieces/Peanut M&Ms (tied) 2. Twix 3. Watchamacallit 4. Snickers (the almond variety…
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Shoo! Get away, you!
Generally, I feel in a rush to be published and begin my professional career in earnest. Part of that is because I’ve been writing for so long and am a touch ashamed that I only recently started taking it so seriously. I lost a whole decade in there where I might have made something of…
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The Cinema!
It’s hard not to say Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie1. The most epic of fantasies done better than any genre movie ever before. But for all its awesomeness, I always come back to Out of Sight. Steven Soderberg’s 1998 movie with George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and Ving Raimes. The writing, the acting,…
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You Have a Proof, Read the Damn Thing!
Here’s a little tradecraft for you. Copyediting and Proofreading are not the same thing. Copyediting often includes proofreading, but it’s not its primary goal. It’s the icing on the cake that makes your story better. Proofreading does not include copyediting (though occasionally a proofreader will attempt to do so and it usually means a lot…
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Filling Up the Tank
When I first started writing in a professional manner, I would have to take breaks every few months. I would take two weeks off and just read, letting my brain cool off and my creative juices to replenish. The more I wrote, the less frequently I had to do this and for shorter amounts of…
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Two Thumbs Up to Level Up
One of the perks of living/working in a major metropolitan area is that new technologies become viable in the marketplace sooner. For me, that means paying with my phone rather than cash/credit card. You might have heard of Square. It won best new technology a year or two ago. Rather than the standard credit card…