My friend Seth W alerted his twitter followers a little while ago, directing them to this wonderful piece on wired.com written by Patton Oswalt, who played Kevin James’ buddy in King of Queens. I normally don’t like the strain of comedy in sitcoms that don’t go beyond penis jokes and battle of the sexes one-ups, … General Oswalt Patton Just Ran A Tank Over Your Forced Pop Culture References
“If it’s bad art, it’s bad religion, no matter how pious the subject.” -Madeleine L’Engle A few months ago I read an interview with an agent working within the CBA industry. For those not in the know — and I was one of those until very recently — CBA is the “Christian” Booksellers Association*, the … Bad Religion vs. Bad Art vs. Sanitized Art
I had Lead Petersen’s blog in my RSS reader but kind of glossed over the #5MinuteFiction contest, until the other day when I decided to participate. I ended up tying first place with writer Jenn Baker. It was good times and extremely difficult to write a coherent, complete story in 5 (really, 15) minutes. Thanks … 5MinuteFiction Finality
The three whiners (heh) of the Matthew Alexander contest have been picked and summarily emailed to death. Actually, they have only been emailed once but I’ve been told that my emails are pretty awful as to induce immediate termination of the reader’s life. Congratulations and enjoy Withur We.
Words, not Word. I mentioned Jer’s Novel Writer before but I thought it deserved its own post. Previously, maybe like a lot of other wannabe writers, I used Microsoft Word to write my book, which is not unlike swatting a fly with the broad side of a barn and only scraping its wing. Word was … Typing Is Believing — Jer’s Novel Writer
The story is simple: I first heard about Matthew Alexander’s libertarian sci-fi debut, Withur We, while lurking and sort of participating in the forums at mises.org. I read the first two chapters of the free online version and checked the perfect reviews on Amazon — and, after consulting some tea leaves (drinking coffee) and tickling … Book Giveaway and Interview: Matthew Alexander
In this post I’m taking a break from being gaseous about writing or my thoughts one of the dozens (literally…dozens) of books that have been published throughout history to post about your big gut and fat butt. Because honestly, dude and miss, you’re pretty fat and you need to lose weight. Now it’s fine if … How to Not Be Fat
This is more for my own reference than anyone else’s reading this. I tend to get snagged when I’m hitting that sweet typing spot and there’s a simple grammar issue of which I’m unsure of a rule governing it, and I have to stop and think of technicalities instead of letting the words flow. Usually … Grammar Be Difficult
Congratulations go out to Matt Uhrich, a fellow Pennsylvanian and writer, for winning the Mike Duran contest and receiving a copy of The Resurrection. Happy reading, Matt — be sure to stretch and fluid up before the first page.
Josh Dies, vocalist for the band Showbread, has invited people to the band’s paid forum (for free) for a reading and discussion of the book Jesus For President, by Shane Claiborne. It’s not a new book, but it has caused some waves because of its somewhat controversial politics and visual design (I don’t know how … Jesus For President, Moses for Speaker of the House
I was listening to one of my favorite Rush albums, Counterparts, the other day, and a line jumped out at me. From “Cold Fire”: She said, “Just don’t disappoint me You know how complex women are” It seemed like the second line could be taken two different ways, and it’s best to describe the difference … Only Neil Knows How Women Are
If you’ve already entered, direct thine oculars to the note at the bottom of the interview to make sure you are truly, truly, entered — then go whack a badly-rendered effigy of me, pinata-style (I am filled with Hot Tamales…they’re my favorite.).
EDIT: See the bottom of the post… Mike Duran is the author of The Resurrection, due out this February 1. He also has written a zillion blog posts about religious belief, speculative fiction, and getting published — and he can probably bench press you. I’ve won two contests that he’s held, so it only makes … Book Giveaway and Interview: Mike Duran
It’s already a few days into the new year and I haven’t broken my non-resolution to read the whole Bible to do a legitimate review of it. In fact, I’m ahead of the 90 days schedule. No furtive glances or fidgety fingers for me — I’m pounding this into submission. Since it’s the era of … Resolutions Were Made To Be Broken
A while back, an online friend joked to me that I should do a book review of the Bible. I thought it was a good idea at the time but I wanted to read the entire thing through first before reviewing it, even though the material is too vast and varied to really do a … Thy Word Is A Bright Cellphone Screen Unto My Vans
So I’m on vacation until the first work day of the new year. Among other things on the docket, mostly holiday-related, that I need to do, I thought I would plan to finish the third and final rewrite of the book — final, as in, the manuscript that is agent-ready and something that I would … Staycation 2010-2011
The Art of Manliness posted about nine writers that are carrying the torch for men’s fiction. It’s not really a secret that most modern fiction is marketed towards women, but I wonder exactly how a story can have a gender. It’s an absurd notion on its head because only people have genders, not words on … Genitalia Fiction
I recently gutted my RSS reader of a few dozen writer blogs and a few select agent blogs because the effort to keep up with all of the linguistic confusion was reaching critical mass. Few writers actually write in their blogs; there’s always some urgent contest, a vomit-dump of acronyms in every post, people scheming … Oh Hey, Speaking of Trying To Get Published, Check Out This Cool Top 10 List
I ride my bike to the bus stop almost every work day — even in the winter. That sounds crazy, but it’s hardly that; biking in the winter is actually much more pleasant and not any more dangerous than in warmer seasons. With a few key pieces of clothing you will not get cold. In … The Risk Taken
Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday is a mystery novel about a poet and secret agent, Gabriel Syme, and his mission to infiltrate an inner circle of anarchists in early 20th century London. He first meets Lucian Gregory, a fellow poet and one of the anarchists, and through some verbal sparring he goads Gregory into … Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday