I've been jonesing to write a western lately. Not a standard one; something of a western mixed genre like space/western or horror/western. Someone pointed me at this fabulous western movie that just makes me want to write a western all the more. http://www.nationundead.com/submissions/21/ As an author, this sort of writing inspires me. As a viewer, I'm impressed with the seamless cuts from past...

Had a lovely dinner at Chuy's with Tim from work, kmarkhoover and hutson . Mmm, Tex-Mex. The conversation was wide-ranging, from childhood development to leprosy, with some brilliant humor all around; but my favorite line of the evening was: "I know I had my car keys when I gave them to the valet!" Umm... Workity work today, plus some good progress on the Endurance outline. Up...

An excerpt from a review of my story "The American Dead" is referenced as a usage example in an online dictionary site — That's funny. calico_reaction reviews Better Off Undead — In which I have a story. truepenny on the problem of genre — joshenglish comments as well . thirdworld talks about writerly ego and confidence — Riffing on this post by ...

My friend and former writers' group buddy kmarkhoover just blogged about two things vital to being a successful writer , namely ego and confidence. Pretty damned simple. I realized that, as a writer, I'd not been doing too well in these arenas of late. I do know what a writer needs to do and it's this and more. I just suck at doing it. You have to write ( Heinlein's rules and all that)...

Interesting to say the least: Top Commenters on ebenstone 's LiveJournal (Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings) 1 kmarkhoover 88 2 misunderstruck 82 3 peadarog 70 4 quiller77 68 5 saetter 66 6 xraytheenforcer 65 7 hyperbard...

Well folks, it's February 28th here in New Zealand and the last day to nominate my sci-fi story, The Derby, for the first round of The Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Short Story.  Thanks to all who have taken the time to read it and send in a nom.  A special shout out to tatterdamelion  , fuguemacabre   and kmarkhoover   for their support.  And for anyone else LJ related, if...

Novels: 1. Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock 2. Nineteen Eight-Four by George Orwell 3. The Princess Bride by William Goldman 4. Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks 5. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan 6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 7. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Novelets 1. Changeling by Dean Whitlock 2. How the Day Runs Down by John Langan 3. Captive Girl...

"We're only human--which means we're capable of breath-taking malevolence when we decide someone's acting like a scumbag." -- jen_deben , aka OxyJen "I can just describe, describe, describe a scene in the most exquisite (and therefore exhausting) detail and be happier than a spanked monkey in a rainstorm." -- kmarkhoover "Well, I'm nearly done giving birth to my next little monster...

Once again, it's time for my Intriguing Friends-page Subject Line winners. I read every single entry on my F-list without fail, but as you all know, there are those subject lines that made me do a double-take. So, without further ado: A New Year's Treat: what's really under that Kilt? -- isabelswift Shrimp and snot -- peachette48 Tomorrow: the living room -- smeddley ...

*Dynastic note: Notice how we begin AND end contemplating someone's (or some thing 's) backside. Hmm. I tried. It wouldn't come out. And I didn't want to just yank it out. That might, you know, HURT. -- jpsorrow , upon discovering a pin in his posterior It was actually kind of depressing because even all their "exciting news of the past year" was pretty lame and boring. A new promotion...