In my never-ending quest to read a wide variety of fiction from around the world, I discovered a great collection of Japanese science fiction: The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories. Well, the cover says it’s a science-fiction collection, but it’s arguably more speculative than science. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I love speculative…
A Cut Up Poem [Poetry]
The Beat Generation writer, Williams S. Burroughs, was known for his experimentation with text. One of his more interesting exercises was creating cut-up prose and poetry. Basically, he would take a page of text, cut it up with scissors, then rearrange it into something new. On the surface it looks like a simple repurposing of…
Stimulating Your Creativity [Creativity]
Sometimes we can get into a rut and find it difficult to be creative. For example, I sometimes have the urge to write, but when I sit down at my keyboard I find there aren’t any words. I simply can’t get started. What I’ve learned is that I occasionally have to stimulate my creativity. Sort…
Another Way To Look At Mistakes [Creativity]
I don’t make mistakes when I write. I make spontaneous creative decisions. At least, that’s what I like to tell myself. We all make mistakes when we write or work on a creative project. Typos, grammatical errors, mistyping a character’s name, or even letting the narrative wander off into the weeds. My question is: are…
Bidding Farewell to 2021
Wow, two weird years in a row. It feels like 2020 and 2021 sort of blended together, one being the continuation of the other. At least this year we had a vaccine to help differentiate it from its predecessor. Personally, it was a year of big change. There were some deaths in the family, new…
Cookbook Roundup! [Cooking]
Despite the disproportionate number of recipe blogs that pop up in my search suggestions, I’m still a fan of the traditional cookbook. In fact, I have about thirty or so lining a couple of bookshelves in my kitchen. Yes, I have a bookcase in my kitchen. And in my living room. And bedroom. And home…
Daily Writing Goals [Writing]
Is it useful to set a daily writing goal for yourself? I’ve been giving this question some thought lately. I’ve read that many published authors set a daily number-based writing goal for themselves. For example, they push themselves to write four thousand words a day, and they can’t stop until they hit that mark. Doesn’t…
Review – The Electric State [Books]
I first discovered Simon Stalenhag when I stumbled upon some of his art posted on a message board. It immediately caught my attention. The image was of a young girl and a small robot standing in what looked like an airplane hanger. To one side, sitting in shadow, were the remains of a giant, decaying…
Productive Procrastination [Creativity]
I recently stumbled upon a term I hadn’t heard before: Productive Procrastination. The basic definition is when someone is productive as a way to avoid doing some other productive endeavor. Weird, right? But I get it. I know I’m guilty of it myself. I’ve caught myself working on a blog post instead of editing a…
Gift Ideas for Writers [Writing]
Buying gifts for writers can be easy. Most people simply buy us books or give us gift certificates to book stores, which is perfectly fine. I love buying books, supporting my fellow writers, and helping out local bookstores. Of course, that can also become repetitious and you may want to do something different for your…