Dramatis Personae Part Deux: ShaChri “Feral Daughter” Patel
Of all the characters in the book, Feral is the most fun to write. She’s American born of Indian parents. Parents who have become very Americanized, but still hold to some of their Hindu traditions and still speak with a bit of an accent. ShaChri’s mother, Puja, wanted very much for her daughter to grow…Read More
Dramatis Personae Part 1: Will “WonderBoy” Kwan
Arnav Gupta, over at his Bookworm blog, has started a thread on characters and their development. He picked Hercule Poirot to start it out. That got me thinking about my characters. I had someone draw my two protagonists a while back. The drawings came out okay, but missed the mark. Probably my poor description of…Read More
English as a second language
I read an interesting blog last night by Beyza Çitak about struggling to learn English (blog link). I can relate. I don’t speak English. I speak American. The “English” speaking world tries to make everyone think that the language spoken by English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, Indians, Singaporans, Kenyans, Bermudans, and Americans…Read More
Cupboard under the stairs
You should know this already. Prior to attending Hogwarts, when the Dursley’s punished Harry Potter, they made him sleep in the cupboard under the stairs. We’re moving. Long tale of woe involving program issues and long delays and innumerable other problems familiar to anyone who has worked on a failed/failing project. So be it. Hey,…Read More
Entering a New Phase
Yesterday afternoon I gathered with fifty or so friends. We stood in an empty T-hangar at the airport. Unfortunately, the hangar faced west, so we were mostly in direct sun and heat. Many wore masks. Everyone sweated. Why bother doing something this uncomfortable? CV-19 has changed a lot of things. This was one. Three months…Read More
Hot Lava and Quicksand
Saw something online about things that worried you as a kid but turned out to be worth very little anxiety as an adult. Hot lava It was never simply “lava.” It specifically had to be hot lava. Never molten magma, liquified rock, vaporized stone, or the like. Similarly scalding, very warm, lukewarm and tepid were…Read More
Isolation Socks
No. That’s not a typo. A while back, my daughter gave me these socks. In the past couple of years, I’ve grown fond of wilder, more expressive socks. I’m also a Trekkie. Spock socks. What’s not to love? At first, I only wore these on weekends. The ears, you know. They stick out and when…Read More
First Look – WB
Very minor spoilers. Will Kwan is a second-generation gamer. His first toys were discarded Xbox and PS controllers that he chewed on as his teeth came in. Spark opened when he was six, but the family waited until he was tall enough to participate in all of the quests. By age seven, he had physically…Read More
First Look – Feral Daughter
Spoiler alert. I’m going to do my best to avoid pre-publication spoilers. I’ll give up minor details, as below, that don’t directly impact any of the main plot lines but will stay away from things like Yoda flying. If you’re a purist, you may want to skip to some of the other posts. Here’s the…Read More
No Dogs. No Dragons.
I wanted both. I mean, who doesn’t like dogs and dragons in a story? Look what it did for A Song of Fire and Ice and George R.R. Martin. I had a dog. Long sequence with Will living on the street in Barstow and befriending a dog. Turned out the dog liked what Will could…Read More