One of the things I love most about being a writer is the fun things you learn or revisit when researching for a story. Tonight's fun Du Jour is Retrobricks--old style cell phones.

The first call ever made from a cell phone was made back in 1973 when Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola placed a call to his main rival Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of ( Read more... )

I heard about this website on a podcast that I listen to for creative writers. I have been too scared to give it a serious try yet, but I think this would either cure writer's block, or kill the writer.

Try it out on Kamikaze mode and see what happens when you pause for too long. Note: do not attempt this test with anything important the first time.

( Read more... )

I spent a little time today sending copies of Hunter's Dawn around to various review sites and then a little more time this evening on promo. I've entered the gorgeous cover into a cover art contest and will let you know when voting time comes for that ( Read more... )

I've been working on a new story for three days now and have only written 979 words. I feel sure I must be missing a tooth or two--it's certainly felt like extracting teeth ( Read more... )

So, I got a few words onto the screen tonight, in between fielding MSN messages from my eldest daughter, wondering if she should go to the ER because she was having trouble breathing, and had chest pains and chills etc. I convinced her to call an ambulance and go to the ER. The kid is an asthmatic, and because she has lived with the disease all her ( Read more... )

I googled Tradmarks in fiction and came up with a pretty good article from The Publishing Law Center. Here's a snippet from the article.

Generally, the use by an author of a trademark in a fictional work to describe or identify particular goods or services, such as "driving in my Ford", "eating a Hershey bar", "playing ( Read more... )

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
  - Samuel Johnson
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
  - Thomas A. Edison
Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's 'St ( Read more... )

You Should Be a Film Writer
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Charles Dickens began the novel A tale of two cities with the sentence: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ( Read more... )

We just got the latest update on Brian from Sandra's mother. The hospital has upgraded his condition to "Very stable" and are beginning to slowly withdraw dialysis, the ventilator and the medications he was on to keep his blood pressure stable. We are hopeful that he will be able to come off all of this without any problems. Sandra's Mum, Hazel, ( Read more... )