Comics without covers As I kid, I read a bunch of comic books. Actually, scratch that. I had a collection of a few dozen comic books, but I just read them over and over again. None of them had covers. And it’s not because I was a destructive child.
There’s an interesting website I’ve been reading for a little while called “The Pastry Box.” It’s an assembly of essays, squibs, and reflections that started with a web/tech/design focus that has evolved substantially from there. I was honored they published my piece “The timelessness of parenting” on their site today. It mentions Twitter and an app that I really like. But it’s really not about tech at all–or perhaps it’s about tech in the way that it is conspicuously about the ways that I am trying to limit it (and how my kids are helping). I hope you enjoy it. I was Read more…
My last two letters sent via TinyLetter touch on many topics–from chess to the 1939 World’s Fair to transistors on a computer chip. But they actually go together quite well because they both are about the iPhone in one way or another. How we make calls, how the phones stack up against old computers from the 90s. I will confess that I’m biased, but I think they are both good balances between informative and interesting. Here’s the letter called “Long-Distance” and the second letter called “50x.” Worth checking out for both the history and future of technology. And, of course, you could read them Read more…
I thought this was an intriguing project and I wanted to share it here before the Indiegogo campaign wrapped up. Erik Jorgensen is working on bringing the “lost archives” of Frank Herbert to light. Herbert’s writing as a journalist is not nearly as well known as his masterwork Dune, of course. But what a journalist like Herbert chooses to pay attention to is revealed in his writing. Jorgensen has digitized his writing from 1949 – 1953 in Santa Rosa, California. Maybe someone should do the same with Herbert’s writing in the Puget Sound area, no? Good luck, Erik, on getting the Read more…
Two months ago, I discovered that some fellow indie writers were creating a “flash fiction” anthology that would span genres. I was very interested. The main stipulation: all stories had to be under 1,000 words. One thousand words really isn’t a lot. (The Lead Cloak is more than 100 times as long) It’s hard to do much in that short space, but that’s what appealed to me. I made the decision to do something I’ve never done before–I wrote the story on my phone. My thinking was that writing on my phone would help me conserve words (there’s a reason emails coming Read more…
I know a lot of authors who have self-published and a lot of authors who have traditionally published (and several who have found an in-between route). Brent Hartinger, my co-host on Media Carnivores, has done both, so together we were able to have a really interesting podcast discussion about this topic. We are definitely coming at it from two different sides–Brent thinks you should start by attempting to traditionally publish and I think you should start by self-publishing first. But we also both see real benefits to all options. The conversation went so well that we extended it into a Read more…
With the rise of drones, we’re becoming a lot more conscious of how little robots are interacting with us in everyday life. Recently Mary and I watched an interesting and funny film about that very topic set in the near future called Robot and Frank. Frank is dealing with some kind of Alzheimer’s or dementia and his son, who lives five hours away, thinks a robot will be make his own life a little easier by taking care of Frank for him. It’s touching, and funny, and also has some jewel heist scenes, which you know always make a movie better. Read more…
I was truly honored to discover last Thursday that I was named “Best Tacoma 2014” by the Weekly Volcano. It was a surprise, even though there was a big smiling picture of me on the cover. Mary and my friend Marguerite convinced me to do the photoshoot without knowing what it was for, and I’m glad I trusted them. Jason Ganwich took a wonderful photo, too! We were on the rooftop deck of one of the Triangle Townhomes (across from the Grand Cinema) to get this shot. Sometimes I worry I’m too scattered–parks, small business, writing, nonprofits and on and on. Read more…
I’m trying something new. (That’s right–another new thing. Because why not?) TinyLetter bills itself as “email for people with something to say.” It’s not built for promotional emails with custom HTML designs and all that jazz. Simple, easy. I’ve subscribed to a few of these, and decided it was time to try it out. This is different than my regular author newsletter, which is exclusively used for alerts about new book titles and new formats. I didn’t want to water that down, which is why I’m trying out this new system. It’s an experiment. Sign up! First email comes out Sunday. (email image from Read more…
I’ve been feeling the familiar itch to find a new look for this ol’ blog. It was leading to a lack of updates, too. I wasn’t happy with the look of the blog, so I didn’t want to spend much time updating it either. I finally found a little bit of time I hadn’t expected, so here we are! A brand new minimalist look. In addition, I’m working on some cool new features for the site, so hold tight!