The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
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Enthusiasm
What what? Two posts in a week? That’s crazy! The Mayans were right! Run for your lives! …wait, never mind, that last post was on Friday, so this is technically a new week. Move along. Nothing to see here. I used to post much more frequently. Technically I’m supposed to be past my busy time…
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Transcending Genre
I’m not a huge Neil Gaiman fan. I do not dislike him, but in the scale of fandom that belongs to him, most everyone I know falls into the “I would give him a kidney if he asked for it” category, and I’m not there. Not all his stories resonate with me. And while my…
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Beware the Gimmicks
Here’s how you market your book: You try to build as large a following on Twitter and Blogger as you can while remaining true to yourself. You publish a book. You contact all the people you’ve become friends with and ask if you can do a guest post on their blog. You post frequently to…
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Interesting Dynamic
I watch people. I consider myself an extroverted misanthrope, if that’s allowed. I love to talk and joke and laugh, but that’s usually when I’m the center of attention. Drop me in the middle of a crowd where I don’t know anyone, and I’m not like a real extrovert that goes around introducing himself to…
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Letting Go
So Kristin Nelson had a very important lesson on her blog today. A lot of famous authors have had to learn that lesson as well. Brandon Sanderson and his agent Jashua Blimes have commented on the drawer full of novels he had written and were not good enough for Elantris, his first published novel. And…
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What’s the Frequency (Kenneth)
My attempt to blog more has been foiled by the arrival of the busy time of year. I know that seems obvious, given I’ve been busy, but that’s been busy with other people’s projects. Now I’m busy with my projects and other people’s projects at the same time. WOO HOO! Wait, no, that’s not woo…
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No Really, I am thankful
I don’t have a lot of regular readers, but those of you that stop in, I really enjoy talking with you (both here and on Twitter). It’s been fun, and I look forward to more fun in the future. I hope you’ll be there for the ride. And for all you new people, hiya. Here’s…
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Throw Your Arms In the Air Because You Just Don’t Care
I write because I’m a writer. I pursue professional publication because that’s been a goal of mine for the past 22 years. It wasn’t always my highest priority, but it was never abandoned. And for the past two+ years, it has been my highest priority. I focus on writing not as an eventual, but as…
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Bringing KITT Back
First let me apologize for my absence. I’ve been fiddling with more personal, non-writing specific posts. That was fine and all, but there was one topic I’ve been trying to tackle for awhile that is difficult because it involves another company owned by the company that owns mine. In other words, there’s a lot I’m…
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Keith Mars on Flashpoint
Have you seen Veronica Mars? Let’s assume you have. If you haven’t, go watch it so my assumption will be correct. You can thank me later. Okay, now that we’re all up to speed, who is one of the best characters on the show? Keith, the dad, played by Enrico Colantoni. If I could rent…
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Real-Life Hobbit
When I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. “Attention K-Mart shoppers” was a frequent phrase uttered over the PA system, to give you a frame of reference. (Younger readers, K-Mart is like Wal-Mart before Wal-Mart was Wal-Mart.) Unfortunately, the quality of goods to be obtained there was not always the best.…
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Naming Characters
Suzanne Johnson posted today on Roni Loren’s writing blog, Fiction Groupie1. Suzanne is discussing picking names for your characters. This is a topic relevant to EVERYONE and a particular challenge to fantasy authors who so often create cultures from the ground up and can’t name their protagonist Joe despite how awesome people named Joe are.…
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Targeting Your HTML
I thought I had blogged on this before but Blogger is being difficult, and I can’t find the post. So I’m posting (reposting?) for reference, as there are some bloggers out there that still need to learn this lesson. For all examples in this explanation, we are going to use [ and ] but when…