I remember finishing the second draft of my book. I made the last corrections and was content. My friends and I had a barbeque over it and I was pretty certain I was about to achieve total victory; there was just one edit left--the one where I would spruce up all of the writing and... Continue Reading →
Lizardmen: They’re Out There, Losing, Right Now
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing slight delays because a Lizardman is on the tracks directly in front of us. The MTA would like to apologize for the delay. As soon as the Lizardman is shooed along, we will proceed." "Will the owner of the red Volvo please report to Lot A; a Lizardman appears to... Continue Reading →
Games for Writers: Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater
For the third entry in the "Games for Writers" series, I thought it would be best to go the same route I went with Metroid Prime; I wanted to show writers a game that did something specific. A game that writers could learn from as much as enjoy. With that in mind, it wasn't hard... Continue Reading →
Game for Writers: Metroid Prime
I know it's been a while since my first entry in the Game for Writers series. I can only say that I've been busy editing and taken the delay to make sure I presented a good second entry. After much debate, I'm glad to say I finally settled on a second title that I can... Continue Reading →
6 Degrees of Bad Fantasy
Most mornings, when pretty much everyone ever is still asleep, I'm shelving in the Sci-Fi / Fantasy section at my job and listening to an audio book on my iPod. It's a new thing for me, listening to the audio book, but it's something I enjoy... Well, something I enjoyed until I decided it would... Continue Reading →
Fantasy NYC: Lev Grossman signing at Borders at Columbus Circle
From the start, Lev Grossman, the author of The Magicians was disarmingly awkward. Well, not from the start. He eased into it, if such a thing is even possible. But still, it was disarming. I'd spent the previous night absorbing the first 100 pages of Grossman's first fantasy novel and feeling dwarfed by it's prose.... Continue Reading →
Games for Writers: Silent Hill 2
When I got serious enough about my writing career that I started feeling guilty for spending a bunch of my time playing video games, I started to rationalize my pass time by calling it research. Example: "Yeah... I can play Final Fantasy XII today because, hey, maybe it'll give me some inspiration." Not the worst... Continue Reading →
The Editing Process
Around when his eyes start to sting and his head begins to throb, Louis realizes he misses the writing process and very much prefers it to the editing process. Fondly, he remembers that the former was like this: -Louis sits down at his computer and rereads the pages he wrote the previous day (or the... Continue Reading →
Character Design: Why Bother?
I was sitting in class at City College once, not taking notes - drawing instead. One of my peers looked over and asked what I was doing. I turned my book so she could see a sketch of one of my favorite main characters. It wasn't enough for her. "Who's that?" I told her and... Continue Reading →
Where to Start?
I'm embarrassed to tell you exactly what hooked me into writing fantasy. Embarrassed because, in retrospect, it's shameful. Most writers will tell you immediately that they were turned by Tolkien, or someone very similar. While I feel such a start has it's disadvantages, it's definitely based in literature. And that's good. Because I got my... Continue Reading →
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