Atlas Obscura recently reported that some of the WWI battlegrounds in France, particularly around Verdun, still have great swathes of land, some of it larger than Paris itself, that are hostile to humans. World War I was the first modern war. Over a century later, we sometimes have trouble thinking of the Great War as […]
Fallout from World War I Read More »
Authors can go to extraordinary lengths to build their fictional worlds. They have travelled the world, and spent decades in research. James Cameron has gone where few men have gone before–in ocean depths that few have ever seen. Based on his research he wrote The Abyss (one of my favourite movies ever) and Titanic. J.R.R. Tolkien invented
Tolkien’s Sources… Read More »
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer who is also a political activist, with a lot to say about capitalism, most of it not nice. He does not mince words. Recently, he wrote a long post that is of relevance to both authors and readers. ‘How a billionaire’s mediocre pump-and-dump “book” became a “bestseller“‘ takes
Helping Authors Without Spending A Penny Read More »
Under one of my other pen names, I received an email from a reader who had found a post I wrote years ago, debunking the myths about crop circles. His email was a single line, which I will paraphrase: You write about magic, but you don’t think crop circles are supernatural? I admit my jaw
Authors Must Write About What They Believe? Read More »
On this day in 532, five days of rioting ended with the death of tens of thousands of residents of the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul), and more than half the city destroyed by fire and violence. It is the most violent riot the city has ever experienced. Chariot racing was a huge sports entertainment
The World’s Largest Sports Riot. Read More »
This one tickled my funny bone. Today, in 1872, the first international soccer match was held. It was a game between Scotland and England (which is technically an international game) in Scotland. There was a lot of grumbling about who got to play on which team, as both Scots and Englishmen had played for either
The First “International” Soccer Game Read More »
Because The Angel Who Wasn’t is novel length, I got to play around with different elements, focus a little on secondary characters, and other fun stuff, instead of getting straight into the story and telling it as succinctly as possible. Some of that fun stuff included introducing a new major secondary character. And one of
THE ANGEL WHO WASN’T — even more fun stuff than usual Read More »
We’re only two weeks away from the release of The Angel Who Wasn’t. As usual, I’m providing the first chapter of the book…and this week, I really can provide the first full chapter! 1: A Visit from Dr. Michael Jones The tall man in the front passenger seat of the black Ford Explorer hadn’t spoken
First Chapter from THE ANGEL WHO WASN’T Read More »
You bitched discussed, I listened. Although there was a large degree of self-interest in switching the Harley Firebird stories to novel length — writing novelettes is a lot harder than writing novels. 🙂 As I mentioned the other day, when I was talking about length, that I would give you a heads-up when The Angel
The Next Harley Firebird Tale Is A Novel!! Read More »
I always write these posts a little way ahead of when they’ll be published on the site. I’m writing this post the day after typing “The End” on the newest Harley Firebird story, and I’ve been reflecting on the experience. After six novelettes, book 7, The Angel Who Wasn’t, is a full length novel, which changes the