September 29th, 2009

Ashamed of my alma mater

I am ashamed and angry at the response from the University of Pittsburgh. It’s not bad enough that K-12 students are taught to OBEY, we are now extending that education to universities?

September 23rd, 2009

Rejection Letters / Backpacking the Catskills

Thought I’d share a story and a few photos from my Labor Day weekend backpacking trip to the Catskill Mountains.

September 18th, 2009

The best critique I ever received

Recent posts by Kristin Nelson and Josh Olson (via Janet Reid) got me thinking about this.

At age 15 my writing abilities were far above those of my peers.  Any essay I turned in, no matter how vapid, met universal praise.  Many teachers assured me that this would one day be my career.  It was very [...]

September 17th, 2009

Writing techniques: revealing character

The new Flaming Lips album Embryonic, is streaming in its entirety over on Colbert Nation.  I’ve been listening to it all day at work.  This is a good day.

I’m currently “reading” Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.  I use the quotes because I am experiencing the novel on audiobook, as I do most of the novels [...]

September 16th, 2009

How not to write query letters

More than 20 literary agents have been sent queries for Volve this week, the first time in the book’s long life that I’ve made this kind of effort toward publication.  I finished the third rewrite a couple of weeks ago, and I have a good feeling about this version.  The rewrite tightened up the narrative [...]