There is a lot of hype about the iPad. I am skeptical for many reasons, but all of my fancy arguments were just trumped by an email Apple just sent me. At the very top was this: After reading this sentence I have become afraid for Apple. It smacks of sales-ly desperation. Because if that’s…
Monthly Archives: January 2010
I wrote -18,000 words today.
No seriously. I read Italo Calvino’s essay on Quickness. Got very excited, cut 20,000 words out of Unkillable. (which will make it stronger, shorter and allow me to finish it faster.) Then I wrote 2000 more words. 2000-20,000 = -18,000. At this rate I’l have no story at all by the end of the week…
I AM CORRUPTING YOUTH!
Some fine folks that I don’t know posted this video to YouTube of their adorable child. In the comments, they mentioned that the audio in the background was Patrick E. McLean’s “How to Succeed in Evil.” I’m not sure how to feel about my voice screaming obscenities and hilarities at a child, so I will default to AWESOME!…
The Reason to Practice an Art
It occurs to me, how much of my life I have spent in the practice of an art. As I write it, the word ‘art’ seems ladened with incorrect connotations. It seems more correct to describe the process as a craft. There is, to be certain, an art of writing. But to get to the…
“The Road to Hell is Paved with Adverbs”
January isn’t even over yet and I can already see that 2010 is going to be a HUGE year. One of the things that I’m very excited about is that I’m going to get spend most of my time helping people improve their writing. This is a move that’s been four years in the making…
Fifteen Kinds of Snow It Would Be Useful to Have Names for
There is a popular story that says that Eskimos have many different words to describe many different kinds of snow. It is a total hoax. Which is a shame, because the idea has a certain magic to it. Fifteen Kinds of Snow that It Would Be Useful to Have Names for: The damp, back-killing snow…
