Book Review: The Red String by D. Marie Prokop
I picked up this book at a local Comic Con – Baytown TX to be exact. I was there at my publisher’s table, hawking my book (and others) and figured I’d spread a little love to other local authors who were doing the same. There wasn’t much conversation, but I’m assuming that the woman who…Read More
Will’s first brush with Death
When my editor rightfully shamed me about Will being such a wimp that he stayed away from SPARK for 40 days, I had to make some other tweaks beyond getting rid of the dog. One sub-theme I liked was the impersonality of the universe. The black grass didn’t care. It just turned toward the strongest…Read More
A boy and his dog
In Draft 2, Will spent a lot of time being homeless in Barstow. 40 days, actually. Yes, that was an allusion to another great hero who spent 40 days in the desert. The instigating event was the same as it is in the published version – an uncomfortable run in with Feral and an anonymous…Read More
Dramatis Personae Part 4: SPARK Security
At the top of the SPARK Security food chain sits Jeffrey Hodgins. He’s most commonly called “Hodge” by those close to him. HVH needed personal protection, so he went headhunting at the US Secret Service – those charged with protecting the President. He found Hodgins and managed to lure him away. Hodgins originally was the…Read More
Dramatis Personae Part 3: What’s in a Janne?
Janne is a homophone of Jane and Jayne and rhymes with cane and pain. It’s a name that started out as an acronym: Just Another Neural Network Experiment. After developing Black Grass, Hecker Van Horne and his team needed to figure out a way to control the blades so that they would maintain optimum orientation for absorption of radiation. It’s…Read More
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