The death of words
Edward R. Murrow said of Winston Churchill in 1940, “Now the hour had come for him to mobilize the English language and send it into battle….” President Kennedy later used this quote when presenting Churchill with honorary American citizenship. It’s still at war, only now it’s under attack. English morphs as times change. Words fall…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
Tales from Comicpalooza
It’s been a while since I blogged, but I have lots of excuses: We moved. We’re back in Houston. All our stuff is in a warehouse in Pasco, WA, waiting for two things – a driver (estimated delay 4-6 weeks), and a delivery address. 2. We’re currently staying with our daughter. All of us. Me,…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 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
Cool Promo Stuff
I continue to be amazed at the high quality, highly creative people that my publisher, Inklings Publishing, is calling in to work on my book. Today’s shout-out goes to the graphic artist who did all of the promo material. Karina Winbigler is a wizard at this stuff. Check her out on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinawinbigler/ She’s…Read More