Renovations, Projects, and Priorities

I have few creative irons in my mental fire. I am creating a second blog that I want to devote to the many social issues of modern life. I also want to start writing and producing my own cyberpunk zine. I also don’t want to write when I don’t have to… Continue reading →

I Can Read Your Mind

“The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy.” ‘kay, whatever, I’m gonna play Call of Duty now. Continue reading →

Keeping Literature Alive. Also, Money!

The 316,480 published books in 2010 shows that people still want to read. While I believe we are entering an age of shorter attention spans and portable libraries, I see no reason to believe good writers will go out of style. Instead, they merely face a few challenges. If writers follow a few stylistic rules and use technology to their advantage, they can speak to the modern crowd with the power of our most revered authors—and maybe earn a living in the process. Continue reading →

The Girl Who Went Out and Bought Stuff: A Tale of Mystery and Suspense

I like the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series as much as anyone else, but the reviews don’t always seem to match up with the text.  I read these on the inside cover of The Girl Who Played With Fire: “Gripping stuff…a nail-biting tale of murder and cover-ups.”  –People “Give up on the idea of sleep … Continue reading →

15 Minute Energy Review – The Fault In Our Stars

John Green is one of my favorite living authors.  He writes very intelligent young adult novels about some of the toughest facts of life, and he does so with blunt grace and fake references to modern culture. For other writers, grace and bluntness may cancel each other out.  But John has a way of showing you the unfortunate … Continue reading →

The Third Kind

Last night I was trying to read Walden again when I suddenly closed the book, walked to my bookshelf, and pulled down my copy of The Girl Who Played With Fire. This made me realize something. There are three kinds of writers. Continue reading →

“Suffer and understand, for all that is life.”

“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.” -Jiddu Krishnamurti Continue reading →

The Twisted Staircase

Today I was thinking, why am I trying so hard to be a great writer? I understand I won’t be great if I don’t keep pushing myself, but I’m trying to push myself too far too fast. I want to write as powerfully as Philip Roth, make a political statement like Victor Hugo, and beat … Continue reading →

A Partner to Language

If we can partner with language, our words will portray thoughts and feelings in a way no other can. Continue reading →

Unemployed Monologue: Avoiding Boredom

I have lived without a job for one month. I avoid worrying about this, even in the face of criticism and warnings about this supposedly dreaded recession. Let’s face it, we are in no danger of becoming a third world country. Sure, we have financial issues, and America nearly defaulted and handed the keys over … Continue reading →