Monthly Archives: May 2011

Worldbuilding 201: Getting Even.

Posted on May 31, 2011 by

I thought they’d done it. I really, really did. The show started off great, with a solid, pseudo-scientific explanation for why these super-powered people had begun to appear, a conspiracy for them to fight, and a tight-knit plot leading up … Continue reading →

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Brains are Beautiful

Posted on May 26, 2011 by

In keeping with Mark William’s Girls Just Want To Have Fun month, I’ve decided to put up the brainiest girl of them all, Agatha Heterodyne. . . . This is Agatha. . . . Agatha is the creation of Phil … Continue reading →

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Trope: a metaphor, example, literary device, picture–and maybe whatever else the writer wants it to mean..

Posted on May 20, 2011 by

I was just digging into some serious re-writing when the latest post at The King of Elfland’s Second Cousin popped up. In it, Chris rhapsodizes about the Periodic Table of Storytelling, probably one of the funniest and most creative plotting … Continue reading →

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World Building 101: Start with a system.

Posted on May 19, 2011 by

Awhile ago someone asked me where I got my ideas for Wearing the Cape, and I had to think about it. Not that I didn’t know the answer, but it’s a bit of a story. Comics came first, of course, … Continue reading →

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The Wardrobe Door

Posted on May 18, 2011 by

I have noticed that some of the best fantasy stories rely on an interesting device; they start out rather mundanely, in a mundane setting with a rather mundane though interesting protagonist. Then they move the protagonist–and the reader–into the fantastic … Continue reading →

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Wild Times

Posted on May 17, 2011 by

I’ve learned I’ll do anything to avoid writing. Like more research; after enjoying Power Down (see previous post) I pulled out some of my old comics, looking for the ones that I enjoyed the most. One short series–not so old–that … Continue reading →

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A Kindle Can Ruin Your Night.

Posted on May 15, 2011 by

It has been a long time since a book kept me up at night. But Kindles make impulse-buys so easy, and what started as research ended after midnight when my eyes rebelled and I had to stop. Some background: I … Continue reading →

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It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine…)

Posted on May 14, 2011 by

David Palmer sucks. Why? Because back in 1984 he came out of nowhere with Emergence, possibly the best First Novel ever, followed it with a second novel (Threshold, almost as good), then disappeared from the face of the earth. Well-meaning … Continue reading →

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Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery.

Posted on May 10, 2011 by

Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson were serious writers of serious sci-fi, so I’ve always wondered if somebody lost a bet, or if they just got way too drunk at a convention and talked each other into it. The result … Continue reading →

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Adventures in the Commonwealth.

Posted on May 6, 2011 by

Silverlock is not so much a lost book as one that is constantly being rediscovered. John Meyers Meyers wrote it back in 1949, so this is a fantasy untouched by JRR Tolkien’s genre-redefining work. But it’s been touched by everything … Continue reading →

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