The Martian by Andy Weir
(I haven’t written a “formal” book review in awhile. But why not? It’s kind of fun. Here’s a review of The Martian by Andy Weir.) Mark Watney just got stranded on Mars. Believing he was dead, his fellow astronauts left Mars in the ship that is Watney’s only means of escape off of the planet. Alone in a hostile environment, he has enough food and water to live for a few weeks, but with the next Mars mission four years away, what chance does he have of surviving until then? Watching Watney try to eek out years of life on a Read more…
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Trying something new! I’ve created an affiliate account for Audible.com. (I know. Big whoop.) But now that I have a couple books on there, it seemed worth trying. If you’ve been thinking about joining Audible, please use this affiliate link that will get me a small bonus. You’ll help support my book-writing even more! I’ve put an ad in the sidebar, too. It’s way down there below the book titles. But it’s there if you want it. Thanks! Try Audible Now and Get A FREE Audiobook! [Affiliate Link]
How to Enjoy Shakespeare
Today is William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Unfortunately, far too many people have a poor introduction to Shakespeare, and give up on him too quickly. I wrote a guide on Medium to enjoying Shakespeare (hint, don’t pick up a play and start trying to read it). It starts with a story about a college professor on Jeopardy. Enjoy.
Announcing Hannah 2.0
We are very excited to announce the newest upgrades to Hannah, our most successful project ever. How fitting that exactly two years after her initial launch, we are ready to unveil Hannah 2.0. A lot of work has gone into creating Hannah 2.0. At times there were sleepless nights, and real differences of opinion about the direction we should take the project. But we always had the long-game in mind, and we think you’ll see our hard work paid off. Hannah 2.0 comes with a host of new features that we think the public will be really excited about. Everyone’s Read more…
Artist2Artist conversation with Marissa Meyer
Last month I sat down with the New York Times best-selling author Marissa Meyer to talk about writing, Tacoma, and more, for TVTacoma. It was a fun and likely conversation, and particularly because I have so enjoyed her books. (The Lunar Chronicles are a sort of sci-fi, steam-punk, fairy tale mashup that works really well, with very strong central characters in all of them. I definitely recommend them.) Here’s the feature: Talking shop with another writer was a lot of fun–so much so, that I’m working on a project that I hope will allow me to do it more often. More Read more…
A Dashed Off Post—My favorite American poet—Emily Dickinson
The last post with A.A. Milne’s poem Daffodowndilly has gotten me thinking about poetry again. Since it’s National Poetry Month, I thought I’d post another poem. This time, on my favorite American poet, Emily Dickinson. She’s a fascinating story: mostly unpublished during her lifetime and something of a hermit, she nevertheless wrote 1800 poems using the verse of hymns, which she broke up with her famous dashes. Fun fact, her poems generally share the same verse as Amazing Grace, House of the Rising Sun, and the theme to Gilligan’s Island—which means you can sing them interchangeably. (Amazing Grace does lose Read more…
Daffodowndilly
Did you know that an old word for daffodil is Daffodowndilly? What a great word! You can practically hear the softness of the flower. It’s a beautiful spring week here in Tacoma–the week after the Daffodil Festival, no less, so I’m thinking of spring and flowers. It also calls to mind a nice poem from A.A. Milne, much more famous for Winnie the Pooh than he is for this poem. But since it’s National Poetry Month, I think it’s very appropriate to share today. Daffodowndilly She wore her yellow sun-bonnet, She wore her greenest gown; She turned to the south wind And Read more…
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
Normally I post book reviews on Goodreads, but I wanted to make an exception for this one, since it fits with the posts about games this year. The Queen’s Gambit [that’s an affiliate link, btw], by Walter Tevis, was just a joy of a book. A young orphan named Elizabeth Harmon is discovered to be a chess prodigy at age eight, and the book follows her story as she developers her talent. You don’t have to know chess to enjoy the book, although I was glad to discover it while in the midst of several games. If you’re familiar with the Read more…
Adding Primes to a Story
Thanks to Robin Sloan and his always-interesting newsletter, I discovered an interesting idea about stories: it’s the primes that really matter. The stories that have stayed with us for years (or centuries or millennia) have not stayed with us because every word or every scene is important. There are key elements that are important: a scene, an image, an idea, a certain archetypal character. In other words, these are the prime numbers, the tentpoles for the rest. If the key elements in the story are the prime numbers, then the rest are just regular numbers, and you can move and Read more…
Where will House of Cards Season 3 leave us?
[Warning, this blog post is full of spoilers for House of Cards, not to mention The Player, All About Eve, Breaking Bad, and The Great Gatsby. Proceed with caution] House of Cards is great television. Season 1 is better than Season 2, I thought, but both seasons are very good. The drama is excellent, even if the show’s reading of politics is a little absurd. But that’s like complaining that Lost didn’t show what it was really like to crash on a tropical island. If you’ve watched the show (and again, this is your last chance to avoid spoilers) Read more…
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