We Write!
I wrote this article for my personal blog, Bayou Renaissance Man, but I think the subject is important enough that I'd like to reproduce it here for the information of authors and writers. We all may have to deal with this subject in our work, and possibly in our personal lives as well - certainly,... Continue Reading →
Oh, the huge manatee . . . It was written seven years ago, but I only came across this article recently. I was tickled by its headline: I spent 7 days in a car with Larry Correia,International Lord of Hate, and lived to tell about it Having enjoyed Larry's company over several days at conventions,... Continue Reading →
So-called "cancel culture" is spreading like wildfire across the literary landscape. It's got to the point where employees of publishers are trying to exercise a veto over what books their employers publish. As one progressive commenter put it, "Nobody has a human right to a lucrative book contract without regard for whether their opinions are... Continue Reading →
With a new Administration in Washington, D.C., and the oligarchs of Big Tech now dominating US politics, we as writers have to expect a new wave of pressure - initially "voluntary", but very likely regulated or even legislated in due course - to conform what we write to the policies of the powers that be.... Continue Reading →
In past articles, I've frequently commented that the market for books is only one element of a much broader market - that for entertainment as a whole. Books compete with movies, TV programs and series, computer games, etc. for a share of the consumer's entertainment dollar. Increasingly, books are getting the short end of that... Continue Reading →
I think everyone needs a "restart" at this time of year. For those of the Christian persuasion, what better restart than to remember the coming of the One who restarted everything for us? On my own blog, I shared how Christmas became real for me, one night in the middle of a civil war. Click... Continue Reading →
Last November, I suffered a heart attack (my second). It was relatively mild compared to my first, back in 2009, but it was still disconcerting (to put it mildly!) I was put on additional medications, on top of the multiple prescriptions I already take each day to deal with the consequences of a permanently disabling... Continue Reading →
Earlier this week, I was amused to find that H. P. Lovecraft's horror short story "The Call of Cthulhu" had been rendered in cartoon form, copying the style of Dr. Seuss, by an enterprising artist. An article at Gizmodo discussed the project. Here are a couple of sample pages. The book is... Continue Reading →
I'm sure everyone's familiar with William Butler Yeats' epic poem, "The Second Coming". Written in the aftermath of the First World War, and the Easter Rising and subsequent Irish War of Independence, it depicts chaos, anarchy and the collapse and disintegration of the familiar. Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the... Continue Reading →
I was fascinated to come across an article at the BBC's Web site describing how the first drafts of famous books reveal the development of their authors' ideas, and also how those ideas were changed to fit contemporary sensibilities and sensitivities. The article was apparently inspired by a firm in Paris, SP Books, which publishes... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 