Entries Categorized as 'Writing'

I love this cover

Date October 14, 2008

Just got my author’s copy yesterday. The anthology features stories about a suburban U.S. high school catering to young wizards and witches, and my story “The House” bats cleanup in the volume (always a fun position to be in):

She lay face down on her bed, clutching her pillow over the back of her head, and moaned, “It’s […]

Just a word about “The Big Meow” ch. 8

Date September 25, 2008

I’m working on it right now and hope to have it up at the weekend. Apologies for the delay: there have been some home / family issues this last month which have disrupted work. (Nothing serious, just disruptive.)
Thanks, all!

Senator Barack Obama meets President Jed Bartlet

Date September 22, 2008

Thank you, Aaron.

OBAMA
I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.
BARTLET
Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.
OBAMA
Which was?
BARTLET
A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.
OBAMA
And?
BARTLET
I was.
OBAMA
I mean, how did you overcome that?
BARTLET
I won’t lie to you, […]

On SciFi (UK) this weekend: Sword of Xanten aka Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

Date September 5, 2008

For those of you on the European side of the water who haven’t seen it as yet: SciFi UK  is showing Sword of Xanten (this being the goofy name that Channel 4 in the UK, like a terminally confused fairy godmother, wished on The Ring / Die Nibelungen / Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King) this Sunday […]

More on “The Big Meow” chapter 8: I need a couple more days

Date August 27, 2008

Folks, work on the present project has run a a couple of days further into this week than planned, so it’s going to be Thursday or Friday before I can get that next chapter posted. Please bear with me, as things are a bit frantic at the moment.
Thanks!
 
Tags: The+Big+Meow, chapter, eight, 8, update

In the O RLY? Dep’t: Dinosaurs helped build the pyramids

Date August 24, 2008

Srsly.
Now all we need to hear is that Hitler was somehow involved and we’ll have the perfect documentary pitch for The History Channel.
(It could have made a good Stargate SG-1 script too, but unfortunately it’s a little late for that. See, the Goa’uld started experimenting with re-evolved saurians as hosts, but then the Ancients…  oh, […]

In the Handicrafts Dep’t: Knit Your Own “Python/Holy Grail” Death Rabbit of Caerbannog

Date August 23, 2008

As described by Tim the Enchanter.  …But with more yarn. (Courtesy of AntiCraft)
(ETA: The Rabbit of Caerbannog has its own Wikipedia page. With lots of citations. Who knew?)
 
 
 
Tags: Monty+Python+and+the+Holy+Grail, death, rabbit, Tim+the+Enchanter, bunny

A little more creeping censorship: the T word

Date August 22, 2008

Here, try this on for size.
Random House Children’s Books has agreed to remove a four-letter swearword from a popular book by Dame Jacqueline Wilson after complaints from Anne Dixon, who insists she is standing up for values of common decency.
The 55-year-old said she was horrified when she came across the expletive in the best-selling book […]

Something new in YA writers’ contracts: the morality clause

Date August 21, 2008

This popped up earlier in the month, but I was busy and didn’t notice. (Possibly a good thing: that’s three weeks less spent fuming.)
A major publisher is starting to insert this clause in its boilerplate contracts for young adult writers:

If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to […]

“The Big Meow” ch. 8 update

Date August 20, 2008

Folks, just a quick word: this week has become unusually disrupted due to other work that’s going on in-house, so I’m going to have to postpone the chapter posting until just after the 27th. Unfortunately the chapter’s just not ready to go up yet, the in-house crisis won’t allow any work on any other projects until […]

Who’ll be watching the Watchmen…?

Date August 19, 2008

— if Fox has its way? A federal judge has denied Warner Bros.’ motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox’s current lawsuit against it, claiming that Fox still owns rights in the Watchmen project dating back to the 1990’s. And the release of “Watchmen” is presently scheduled for March ‘09.
This one could get very messy. (Side […]

“Yes! I want to go to the bathroom!”

Date August 18, 2008

So who else remembers that great line from the film Crazy People? It featured Dudley Moore as an off-the-rails, burnt-or-burning-out ad exec who is chucked into a psychiatric hospital and then winds up (with the assistance of some of his fellow patients, one of them played by Darryl Hannah) doing something absolutely unthinkable: basing print […]