I’ve been sitting on the fence about this Amazon/Hachette thing for a while. Mostly because I just don’t give a damn. As far as I can tell, it’s one big company against another in pretty much standard big-company negotiations, moderately more amusing than most because each party is trying to suck in its gut and […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about short mystery structure lately, trying to figure out what works at the 4k-12k word range. Shorter works than that always seem to rely on twists, and feel more like vignettes or rely on a single gotcha like those “Catch A Murderer!” books. Longer works than 12k get closer to […]
I had reason to recall this morning The Strand’s interview with Rex Stout (which is itself very much worth a read) and noticed an interesting interchange I wanted to comment on: McALEER: Did Archie hang up the picture of Sherlock Holmes that is found over his desk, or did Wolfe put it there? STOUT: Did I say that […]
My novella (half-novel) Claudius Rex is the third story in ALEMBICAL 3, a novella anthology published by Paper Golem Press. <<Turn left here,>> said my new Jeeves 5 artificial intelligence. I’d have happily done it, too–with a spring in my step, even–except there was a manhole open with a robot working in it, and I […]
I watched the new Godzilla movie with a friend this afternoon. It was perfectly enjoyable, if you like that kind of thing (and I do). But learned something too: I realized that Godzilla is a cat. (There are spoilers here, by the way, if you consider a Godzilla movie spoilable) Consider: the monster is described […]
OK, I’m actually just playing video games. Kerbal Space Program, to be exact. It’s a remarkable game — essentially a space program simulator. You build rockets from standard-ish parts, put astronauts in them (astronauts have two stats: courage and stupidity) and fly them into orbit, to the Mün, or around the sun. It’s got a gentle […]
My novella Claudius Rex will be out soon. Watch this space for details, or contact me via my handy contact form to be put on my email list. In the meantime, something pretty to look at: Cover image Jakub Šram, cover design Lawrence Schoen
After a few Twitter conversations over the last few days on the subject of Kickstarted fiction magazines, I’ve refined my thinking a bit. I’ve backed kind of a lot of Kickstarter campaigns over the years — almost 60, many of them fiction but by no means all — and have opinions on what they ought to […]
I’ve talked about this before, here and elsewhere, and never really laid it out. I decided it would be useful to have it here as a reference, so here goes. There are many variants on murder mystery plot structures, many of them super-effective both as mysteries and as carrier plots for larger ideas. The five-act […]
I recommend the Paris Review’s “The Art of Fiction” series to anyone interested in writing (and many people who aren’t). Interviews with talented writers are not always everything they’re cracked up to be, and often the advice is inapplicable or just plain wrong — even the most talented people don’t always have a good sense […]
