A writing update
As I said before, The Marinara Murders is simmering in a drawer, waiting for me to pull it out and edit it. If all goes as planned, that will be next Saturday, where I try to read the book all in one sitting. I'm very excited to re-read it and see how I did, but in order to know that, I need some distance from it (which is why I've waiting more than 7 weeks since I finished it. But I've also decided that the best way to get a little distance from the book is to start the next Read more…
Looking Ahead to Twenty Eleven
These past few days I've been in Madison WI and St. Louis for some New Years cheer with Mary's family. I haven't posted much here because I've been finishing off a lot of thinking and a lot of reading. The reading and thinking has primarily been around 3 main topics: technology, creativity, and innovation. In pursuit of those topics, I've been reading a bunch of books, watching a bunch of TED talks, and then thinking about what it means for my own life and work. I have come to realize that I really really like creating things. These "things" could Read more…
I apparently like writing short novels
The Saints Go Dying is a pretty short novel, roughly 204 pages or so. The Marinara Murders, if the first draft is anything to judge by, is only 20 pages longer. Unless I find some major major issue, as I did with the first draft of The Saints Go Dying, I doubt it will grow very much. Maybe 10 pages at the most. I worry that these are just a little too much on the short side. As a published book, they’d either have thin spines, or big fonts. (On the flip side, I have heard that debut novels are Read more…
GTD: It’s all work
I still write every so often for GTDTimes, the official Getting Things Done blog. One of my last posts got quoted in Britain's "Globe and Mail" newspaper! I have a more philosophical post up this time, as opposed to a practical guide, if you will. But it still turned out pretty well and got good buzz and comments on Twitter. Check it out here.
“Put it in English!” My campaign against jargon
At a recent meeting for Metro Parks, the Director of the Zoo mentioned something about the zoo's "charismatic mega-vertebrates." As in walruses and polar bears and tigers. Charismatic mega-vertebrates, if you are a zookeeper, is a very useful classification. It describes a certain kind of animal that crosses biological distinctions of taxonomy: ie, big animals people want to see. But outside of that particular setting, the jargon makes absolutely no sense. I wouldn't tell you in normal conversation that you should get to the zoo to see the baby charismatic mega-vertebrates. They're baby tigers. Calling them anything else would be Read more…
This is at a zoo.
via failblog.org I appreciate warning signs that actually get your attention. If this sign just said “Danger: Do Not Enter” that’s not very specific. Why is it dangerous? I’ll quote one of E.B. White’s rules of style: “Be clear.” “Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded road sign, heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a rail station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Read more…
Quiet Weekend
We spent a long weekend at Mason Lake, catching up on reading and perfecting the fine art of doing nothing. Mary beat me at Spite and Malice (a good card game). We watched a DVD or two. And I wrote a couple chapters in the novel I'm working on. The weather wasn't all it could have been for the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August, but even with some cloudy skies, the lake isn't a bad place to while away the time. After that we met up with my friend Deborah from The Netherlands in Seattle Read more…
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