(Photo: View outside my office window) For the past several years, my resolution for the new year was the same: get an agent. Now, my life changed a lot in the past year. New apartment (that we actually own!), new baby (whom my wife foolishly allowed me to name Leia), and a disappointing ending of … Continue reading A New New Year’s Resolution
Today I woke up with a sore throat. Again. The daughter has been sick the past three days and the wife the past two days. Now it’s my turn.I’m hoping it clears up pretty fast. It’s going to be a busy week starting tomorrow because I have a meeting about the new semester that starts on Wednesday. … Continue reading Jan. 1st, 2018
A trope I am seeing in YA recently, and I may be wrong, but from looking at the popular titles on Amazon recently, I’m seeing a trend of stories set in a medieval magical setting. Their stories may be intriguing, and their characters in-depth and fascinating, but the settings are a simple backdrop that has … Continue reading The Setting As A Character
Step 1: Have an idea This unshapely blob of a plot may stew in the back of your mind for months or years before you are ready to put a single word down on paper. But you need a general idea of your plot, characters, and theme before you move on. Step 2. Synopsis Create a synopsis … Continue reading 10 Steps to Published
What do I look like to other people? Physically, am I somewhere between handsome and unappealing? Which side of the spectrum do I lean towards? Am I one of those people that resemble actors in the negative sense that I am an uglier version of these beautiful people? What about my personality? My intelligence? Maybe … Continue reading Back of the Mind Worries
Maybe I connect to Stone’s character too much. Maybe because I know exactly how she feels when she says that she’s not good enough. Because I know what it’s like to wonder if I’m supposed to be one of those people who just grows up and wakes up and moves on with life, trying not … Continue reading La La Land – Favorite Scene
If only I knew. Every time I close the the word processor for the day, feeling like I’ve made some progress, have I just been deluding myself? Am I living in some fantasy, thinking that I will ever see books on shelves that people will actually comment about in other spheres of the internet? Websites … Continue reading What is a writer?
Cowboy Bebop is an entryway into a deep, dark hole of anime that never ends. But it’s more than that. Cowboy Bebop is a philosophy on life. It’s a way of carrying on in the stoic, British sense. Stiff upper lip, but more nihilistic. Cowboy Bebop is stories inside stories. It’s a musical experience. The Seatbelts. … Continue reading Cowboy Bebop & Why You Should Watch It
The negative connotation attached to the word ‘obession’ does not go unnoticed by the obsessed. Much in the same way ‘luck’ is brushed off by the spectator as being a passive thing that the owner has no control over. Where mental faculties are not in question, ‘obsession’ is often a choice. Being told that you are … Continue reading Obsessed is the New Dedicated
My favorite line from a lovely, Ghibli film in which an old man holds up an ordinary stone with a green glint shining through a crack: “It’s called beryl. You find it in emerald ore. You are like this stone. Rough. Unpolished. Still natural. I like stones that way. But making violins or writing stories … Continue reading Whisper of the Heart