In the age of the internet, where everything is fed at us in overwhelming amounts, there's a common tendency to treat checking social media like fidgeting - a nervous habit done most of the waking hours without conscious participation, driven by an underlying fear of missing out. And in the world of authors talking about... Continue Reading →
A Baseline for Damage
A friend brought up something I hadn't considered before: damage to the human body incurred while exiting a moving vehicle and what that looks like, for writing purposes. I hadn't really given it much thought before, because reasons. Dorothy Grant was in the same conversation however and she suggested looking at motorcycle accidents, then tied... Continue Reading →
Days of Burning, Days of Wrath
I’ve been waiting for this novel nearly 10 years. Yes, I bought the eARC. Yes I know it may differ from what gets published later this year- I don’t care! I’ll buy the finished product too. This was worth it. Days of Burning, Days of Wrath is the conclusion of conflict on Terra Nova, between... Continue Reading →
Vampires, Airships, and Romance, Oh My!
Yes folks, I said it. I meant it- this novel has all four and more, because why not? What could possibly go wrong when you combine all 4 of these ingredients in a Victorian-era Europe, with Noble Houses engaged in subterfuge against each other? Absolutely nothing, right? Heheheh. Wrong. Hope you’ve got your safety harness... Continue Reading →
The Perfect Novel for an Afternoon- Rimworld: The Rift
A man can never have too many friends. He can only have too few. JL Curtis’ new novel Rimworld: The Rift demonstrates this principle from the very beginning. Danny Ortega is a drunken sot. Bedecked in bad hygiene, the stench of his latest bender covering him like some malignant cloud of Suck and Fail, its... Continue Reading →
Reviewing JL Curtis’s Rimworld series
Amongst the multifaceted variety of challenges authors face, there is the tendency to get lost in the weeds. This can happen to anybody. Ever met somebody who is a fan of dragons? Their work will be replete with dragons. In every form possible. This tunnel vision can quickly grow wearisome. Picking up JL Curtis’s Rimworld... Continue Reading →
Execution: Violence in Action and Writing
Violence, and violent action, can be difficult to portray. Yet the ability to do so is a necessary part of the fiction writer's repertoire. Violence is a part of the human condition. If we hairless apes have learned anything in the last 5000 years of existence on planet Earth, it is that violence is a... Continue Reading →
Rolling Through Emotions
I am a video gamer. Have been since I first learned how to play Super Mario Brothers. Then came Half Life, Half Life: Opposing Force, Age of Empires 1 &2, and Mechwarrior 3. All games with a story that hooked the player into it. I remember the night I beat Mechwarrior 3. It was a... Continue Reading →
Ford vs Ferrari: On the Money!
If you haven’t seen Ford vs Ferrari yet, you need to correct yourself. Yes, it’s a car movie. No, you don’t need to know a great deal about cars. Hell, go in knowing nothing. Because in the end, this movie isn’t about cars. It’s about men. Being men. Doing manly things. Without being negative! You... Continue Reading →
All Hail Mong the Magnificent!
We try, as writers, as purveyors of fictional stories, to make characters who can handle the challenges set before them. How a character responds is entirely up to the writer, and the limits of the world in which their characters are interacting. For Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden, guns are less important than magic and how... Continue Reading →