Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Big Idea: Douglas Hulick

Some say that dictionaries are descriptive, some say they are prescriptive — but how many say that they are inspirational? Douglas Hulick is one of the (I assume) relatively few in that last category, and he’s here to explain how a chance encounter with one eventually led to his debut fantasy novel Among Thieves. The […]

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826

That was the number I had in mind for yesterday’s contest, and this was the fellow who picked it first. Congratulations, Mike, and thanks everybody for playing. I will probably give away at least a couple more ARCs of Fuzzy Nation before the release date, so be ready. Because it could happen at any time.

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Science Fiction Film, Briefly

This week at FilmCritic.com, I decided to let other people do my work for me leverage the synergistic possibilities of social media by having people ask me science fiction and fantasy film-related questions on Twitter, to which I would respond, at Twitter lengths, in the column. How did it work out? The answers, in 140 […]

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The Big Idea: Derryl Murphy

They say travel broadens the mind, but for Derryl Murphy, it did more than that: It helped to write his newest novel, Napier’s Bones, and did so not just on a practical level (that is, of allowing him to research information) but also on an inspirational level as well. It’s an argument that being there […]

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iPad Glitchery

I was alerted by a reader that for some reason the site wasn’t coming through on iPads. I told her to check her iPad browser cache, but then I checked my own iPad and had the same problem. I think I’ve identified the culprit — WordPress has incorporated a flashy new widget that displays site […]

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My Coke Zero Methadone

People have been asking me how I’m dealing with my Lent-esque commitment to keep from drinking Coke Zero through Easter. The answer is that it’s been going pretty well. The commitment was to stop drinking Coke Zero, but I took it as an opportunity to also scale back the amount of caffeine I was drinking. […]

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Diana Wynne Jones

News is coming across the Twitter that writer Diana Wynne Jones passed away in the night; I imagine it will be confirmed by official sources soon enough. I have no connection to Jones other than as a reader, but I think that’s enough to celebrate her life and mourn her passing. My favorite book of […]

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Just Arrived 3/25/11

Look! Books! Here’s some of what’s been sent to me recently: * The Physics of the Future, by Michio Kaku (Doubleday): The subtitle to this pop science book proclaims “How science will shape human destiny and our daily lives by 2100.” Finally! Someone will tell me when I get my flying car! No, really, there’s […]

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I Like Amanda Hocking

She just seems so darn sensible, that’s why. For example, when she talks about why, even after she made a name for herself self-publishing electronically, she took a $2 million advance from St. Martin’s Press for an upcoming book series, over on her blog. It’s worth reading in its entirety, but what it boils down […]

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The Big Idea: Jesse Bullington

In some ways, writing a novel is as much about giving your characters space to introduce themselves — especially to you, their author — as it is giving them a plot so they will have something to do. In The Enterprise of Death, author Jesse Bullington had a particular character which he had been trying […]

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