Thoughts
I write a lot. Essays. Articles. Blog posts. All of them sharing what I’m thinking about. Maybe you think about these things, too.
Something Scary in Time for Halloween!
When placed around a word or phrase as in these examples, they’re called “scare quotes” ... and, man, are they scary!
Can Fiction Make a Difference?
One of the joys of reading is the opportunity to live alongside someone else for a time. Hear their thoughts. Be affected by their questions. Wonder why they did one thing and not another. And it’s nearly impossible to do that while still hating them as part of a group.
How (Maybe) to Publish Your Work
Language is communication, and stories tell us where we’ve been and—at their best—where we’re going.
The Mills Are Closing
We can regret some changes and applaud others; but they’re going to happen, with or without our approval, whether or not we’re prepared for them.
The Clock Is Ticking...
Ali’s in law enforcement. You don’t scream your head off in the middle of the night and not expect a reaction. I was probably lucky he hadn’t drawn a gun or something.
Art is on My Mind...
When I was wondering what context to give my protagonist Sydney’s next set of adventures, it occurred to me that I hadn’t yet explored the world of art.
The Story's The Thing
I’m always talking about how the stories we tell and the stories we read or hear or view both reflect and shape who we are. Usually I’m talking about enlightenment—learning something about ourselves, delving into issues such as pain or love or agency. But sometimes, the stories teach us facts.
Writer's Block as Liminal Space
Something caused us to stop writing—out of ideas, out of time, out of flow, out of inspiration—and we’re finding it difficult to re-enter the zone, to reconnect with the love.
Is Technology Leaving Readers Behind?
As writers, one of our obligations, I think, is to be the vehicle that enables readers to ask these questions in a safe fictional space. Raising the questions in fiction doesn’t make them any less real, or any less urgent, or any less difficult, but it serves the same function as fairytales and horror stories, the option of experiencing fears without also experiencing immediate and life-threatening danger.
Why Women Like Murder Mysteries
We like to see justice done, especially when we perceive that the real world isn’t playing fair with us.
Recycling the Classics
It's probably true, as they say, that every story has already been told... and retold... and retold. Like the people in marketing say, though, it's all about spin. And you could do worse than to re-spin some of the classics. I'm not talking Shakespeare: he's a little cliché by now. No: I'm going further back, to the fertile ground of Greek and Roman mythology.
Is AI the Beginning or the End?
I’m not worried—yet. AI can’t do what I can do—yet. Computers can’t just create stories in a void; instead, they’re given a massive number of exemplars—works that are similar to what the computer is tasked to create—which is then broken down into data. AI reads the data using statistical algorithms to recognize patterns and relationships.
Be Afraid ... Be Very Afraid
Stories give us a place to put our fears. Stories that frighten us or unsettle us give us the means to explore the things that scare us… but only as far as our imaginations and our experiences allow.
Finding Your Writer's Voice — Part One
And of course every event we experience, especially crisis events, changes us. And that affects how we express ourselves.
Fiction in a Time of “Alternative Facts”
And I wonder, sometimes, if playing the fiction card relieves us—readers and writers alike—from the storyteller’s responsibility, the obligation to observe and reflect a culture, a society, a time.
Does The Look-Inside-the-Book Feature Hurt Authors?
I want potential readers to check out my books on virtual shelves in the same way I want them looking through them in a bookshop or library.
Is It Real? Is It a Forgery? Does Anyone Even Know?
I’ve been immersed in the world of high-end art forgeries, and as usual am following every rabbit down every hole in sight. Some of the most high-profile art forgers went on to become celebrities in their own right, with plenty of contemporary collectors still willing to knowingly pay thousands for counterfeits.
And the World Echoes with His Absence
Along with Tolkien and Lewis and another of my favorites, G.K. Chesterton, Buchener’s work affirmed that faith and doubt live alongside each other; that you cannot have the one without the other.
When Lives and Literature Are Inconsistent
How do we regard artists whose contributions are significant, and yet whose public views on other people are questionable at best and scathingly horrible at worst?
How Stories Stay With Us …. Sometimes Forever
It reminds me in my own writing to allow for that glimmer of hope, to show that evil needs to be confronted and that goodness can prevail.