Storytellersunplugged

There are a lot of lakes and ponds in the Triangle, many of them man-made. There's one I pass driving to work every day, and another that sits across the street from my office. You can go there on your lunch break and see people fishing or sailing or throwing frisbees into the water for their dogs to chase. I've even availed myself of the facilities a few times, and am pleased to report I've only fallen out of a rented canoe ... Read More

One of the consistent excuses given for the quality (or lack thereof) of videogame writing is that we are, and I quote, "a young industry". While it's a lovely and convenient excuse for the endless parade of stubble-jawed ex-space marines out for interstellar vengeance that haunt the shelves, it's hogwash. I know. I write the bloody things for a living[1], and that means playing them - good and bad - as they come along, to see how high the professional bar has ... Read More

I’ve talked about writing reviews before in this space, but, upon further (ahem) review, I realized that my work in that regard was not quite finished. Sure, I’d talked about what I thought was important in a review, and John B. Rosenman had posted an excellent essay about his reviewing techniques, but I realized I’d left out the most important thing. I’d forgotten to talk about how to write a bad review. Not an unfavorable one, mind you – a bad one. A ... Read More

The most important lesson I learned while working in a bookstore was taught to me by smut-loving nuns. In so many words, they taught me that people enjoy reading what they enjoy, and that trying to “elevate” them to your particular taste was a foolhardy and condescending endeavor. The second most important lesson I learned had to do with betting against a sure thing, particularly where a waiter at a downtown bar and a lovely undergrad majoring in massage therapy are involved, but ... Read More

Los Angeles is not my usual stomping ground, so visiting twice in a month is quite the event. One trip was for Book Expo America, while the current trip is tied into a recording session for a Game Which Shall Not Be Named. Both trips seem straightforward – go in, take care of business, go home. But around the edges, you can always find stories. Here are six. ONE Never before have I been haunted by Dr. Ruth Westheimer. I first saw her in ... Read More

There are lots of terrible things you can do with books, should you be so inclined. You can maltreat them. Spill coffee on them, bend the spines back, read ‘em in the bathtub and drop ‘em in the lavender-scented suds. Then you can try to fob them off on the local used bookstore, claiming they’re perfectly readable, and get all shirty when the clerk points out that the spine has a waveform like radio emissions off the poles of Jupiter. You can burn them. ... Read More

Recently, someone used the user review function over at amazon.com to pan my novel Firefly Rain. The book’s crime? Incorrect use of the word “y’all”. Apparently the way I’d trawled my y'alls did not jibe with the reader’s understanding of how y’all is supposed to be used, and as such, he had no use for the rest of the book as well. He gave the book two stars and made impolite noises on the way out, and that was that. Now, there are ... Read More

Memory hits in the damndest places. Halfway across the Atlantic, for example. It’s the day after a business trip to Paris, and I’m bone-weary. The flight is full; no empty seats for stretching out this time, and the woman in front of me had reclined her seat into my lap even before takeoff. A coworker’s got the seat next to mine, intent on her portable DVD player and hoping vaguely that nobody’s seated a kid where they can see the gory vampire shenanigans ... Read More