Canada has produced the two of the three greatest song lyricists in modern history, Leonard Cohen and Neil Peart. And while I've always liked Cohen, I absolutely loved Peart. I've never like big crowds, so I didn't go to many of the large scale concerts. There's probably less than a half-dozen other big name bands … Continue reading Neil Peart R.I.P.
And by 'we' I mean those of us who eschew the nihilism of Grimdark. Hugo and Dragon Award nominee, Benjamin Cheah Kai Wai recently posted: 'This world is a dark world. Open a newspaper and see for yourself. Murder, genocide, civil war, assaults, rapes, kidnapping, sex trafficking, corruption, on and on, and endless litany of … Continue reading Why We Write What We Write
I've long considered Jim Butcher to be one of the Master novelists living today. His books are consistently exciting and thoroughly enjoyable. Oddly enough I've never thought to seek out his wigwam on the worldwide web until just the other day. Having done so at last, I found nothing less than the secret to his … Continue reading Anatomy of the Scene
"The imaginative power of Star Wars’s IP has been systematically stripped away into a confused and contradictory mess loaded down with contemporary politics. The simple, yet rich story of the originals (and even of the prequels, for all their faults) now suffers from a soulless and pointless tumor that grinds the rich characters of the … Continue reading Talking Dying Franchises at ‘The Federalist’
https://youtu.be/KYJhBNwwvok I briefly covered one of the incidents to which Richard Paolinelli alludes HERE.
SCRIPT SHADOW offers some advice on making dialogue lively and interesting. It is offered to writers of scripts but I believe it equally useful to all of us.
There is a prejudice in modern SF so nearly ubiquitous that it can be considered a trope. I’m talking about the assumption that the more technologically advanced a civilization becomes, the less religious it will be. While this prejudice is normally implicit in a lot of science fiction, the assumption was stated explicitly not too … Continue reading Galactic Christendom: A Short History
In the Afterword of my latest novel, I thank a small number of people who helped with the writing of the book. Benjamin Cheah is one of the three beta-readers I thank for their attention and critique. So, who is this Cheah fellow? The short answer is that Benjamin is a fellow writer who is … Continue reading Benjamin Cheah
Some Sobering Words For Writers via So, You Want to Be a Writer...
One is tempted to say that there are as many reasons as there are writers but, I believe there really aren't that many reasons why writers write. Author Edward Willett sums up the reason why many well known and lesser known writers have given for why they do what they do. I can give many … Continue reading Why Do Writers Write?
