For me anyway, books have distinct phases. The 'what a great idea I am plunging into' phase, to the 'this is hard complex yakka phase', creating the details and shape of a whole world, picking the variables that will determine your character’s path. This where you find the character and plot have had a less-than-amicable... Continue Reading →
Books for Writers
Next post, I'll do a link post of sites with information on copyright (good, bad, and ugly) and related resources. However, that takes time I did not have last week, so I want to look at resources for authors, especially books that I have found useful. Important caveat: these are books that I have found... Continue Reading →
IP: Cover Art Licenses
As you all know, Indie authors wear a lot of hats. I have a few extra, because I'm an author and an artist. So this post is going to be me switching hats, and talking about cover art, from both sides of the page. It all started because I was stupid. Yeah, yeah, I know,... Continue Reading →
Literature through Russian eyes – and what it says about political correctness
Today I'm not going to say much myself. Instead, I'm going to quote several paragraphs from a very long, but very thought-provoking, analysis of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and other Russian authors, and how literature came to represent a moral crusade for them, and for their fellow countrymen. It's in the New Criterion, titled "How the great truth... Continue Reading →
Judge Not
One thing that I've found over the years is that people are generally really bad at judging themselves. I've lost count of the number of times I've been told something about myself that I would never have considered a defining factor - but when enough people say the same thing, there's got to be something... Continue Reading →
If At First You Don’t Succeed
I hesitate to say that sometimes you need to rewrite. I hesitate to say it, because writers are crazy people, and given half a chance will spend their entire lives rewriting the One True Book, which frankly, more likely than not was never worth that much effort, and would turn out a dud in either... Continue Reading →
Hard Labor
What a week. Not my favorite. Mind your self-care, friends. Make doubly sure you are getting the fiddly bits slotted into the right places so you keel is even. It makes everything less onerous. Perhaps not easy, per se, but much easier than otherwise. Let us say the Wee Horde is adjusting to change, perhaps... Continue Reading →
IP: What does it mean to you?
Hello friendly readers! This is your neighborhood Mad Scientist dashing in to say that we need your data. We here at the Mad Genii are gearing up to do a series on intellectual property, what it means, how to deal with it, and etcetera. We'd like your input as to what you'd like to see... Continue Reading →
Pushing through
I’ve been well, sort of log-jammed with the writing and real life – we now have a roof over the family home again. (We moved an old house onto our little farm – in sections. And in the case of one of those sections, in pieces. Needless to say that’s (in the fashion of these... Continue Reading →
How long does recovery take?
We're all familiar with the terrible trope of action movies (and cop shows) where a guy takes a bullet, and then in the end of the episode, he has his arm in a sling, but he's all better by the end of the movie / very next episode. In the really real world, people don't... Continue Reading →