There are great moments, when you are a heavy reader, of discovering new authors. This last week, I discovered Paolo Bacigalupi. He has written books before the one I found, such as The Windup Girl, The Water Knife, and The Tangled Lands. He also has a young adult series called the Ship Breaker trilogy. As a rule, as an adult, I don’t read young adult books; they tend to disappoint greatly. In his case, I might make an exception.   Because the book of his I discovered, Navola

People say they want to be successful, but they behave like the person next to them. They try to make sure they are watching some of the same shows and make sure they are aware of the same memes, and the same viral clips. Let me be very clear: Success and commonplace do not walk hand in hand. Success and average have no common path to tread. Success and what everyone else does are not neighbors. Because the average person is not successful. I am American, so let’s talk about

Having fun doesn’t have to cost money, but it generally does. Let’s talk about some common activities that people do outside their home.   Movies (In the theater): $13–$16 per ticket (about 2 hours) → $6.50–$8/hour Dinner Date (mid-range restaurant): $50–$100 per person for ~1.5–2 hours → $25–$65/hour Trampoline Park (indoor): $18–$28 for 1 hour pass → $18–$28/hour Axe Throwing: $25–$40 per person per hour → $25–$40/hour Bowling (lane cost): $20–$60 per lane per hour → if 4 p

It is legion the number of things you will not be. The greatest football player in the world is not a concert hall pianist. The greatest physicist in the world is not a painter with their pieces hanging in the Louvre. The greatest violinist is not also working as a director of chemical engineering in a pharmaceutical company.   That is not to say they cannot be these things; perhaps they could have been. That is what makes us amazing as human beings.   You can be a star athle

My wife and I were recently in Boulder, Colorado. If there were a poster child for trying to do the right thing by way of the environment, this might be the place. Let’s ignore all politics for a moment and whether you agree or disagree about that, and talk about the act of “being good.”   We helped clean out a garage that hadn’t been cleaned out in decades. We had to dispose of scrap metal, scrap wood, Styrofoam, old paint, long-expired rat poisons and plant sprays, road fla

“Hey Bob, how’s it going?” “Tim, how goes? It’s okay, just back from Memphis.” “Good ribs, right?” “You know it.” “Watching the game tonight?” “If my boss lets us leave when he’s supposed to, yeah...” Make your conversation fit the person and the place. Blah blah blah . Do I need to be here for this? Not really, and you don’t either. And neither were Bob and Tim. That conversation could be had on autopilot, and probably was. You know its content from the beginning, and you k

But thinking makes it so. The Buddha (via Dhammapada, Buddhism): “Mind precedes thoughts, mind is their chief, their quality is made by mind; if with a base mind one speaks or acts … then suffering follows … If with a pure mind one speaks or acts … then happiness follows.” AKA, our experience of good or bad arises from the mind. AKA, “thinking makes it so.” Qur'an / Muhammad (Islam): The hadith: “Strange indeed are the affairs of the believers: for all their affairs are good.

If you are a writer, you very likely have a scene or two in your head that your mind tells you is just perfect. Maybe it is heart-wrenching, maybe it is too cool to not have in your action-adventure, spy thriller, or fantasy novel. Maybe it is a plot twist too perfect to leave out and you know every reader will never see it coming, and will be forced to reread your book to go back and see how they didn’t know. Sometimes authors say entire books come out of one scene for them

It has been said many times, many ways: kill your darlings. These last few months I have been working on a book which had been at first draft. I had written it, let it sit on a shelf for a few weeks, gave it a once over for basic plot points character arcs, and thought, “yeah that isn’t bad.” I knew it needed polish, but I have recently taken to having beta readers and editors have at my first drafts, because I don’t want to polish a pig, I want to polish the swan. (or whatev

When I am reviewing a book, it is almost always after the fact. I don’t sit down to review a book, and I don’t review every book I read. I just read and sometimes write a review. Somehow this time I knew when I picked this one up, within the first 50 pages, that I was going to be reviewing it. Maybe because I sat down with my editor’s hat on too soon after other writing-related work, but I could see the forest through the trees on Rise of Mages, and well... I just don’t care.

You are going to have a last flower. You are going to walk into your garden one day, and that day will be the last day something new blooms before winter overtakes you (at least where I live!). It will be stark, beautiful, and a reminder of the things that have bloomed before.   My Last Flower Then you will walk through your garden and see the flowers that didn’t finish. They almost bloomed, but in the lateness of the season they were halted and they will be only that: buds t

I cannot recall what I was listening to, or if it was reading that discussed the asteroid conundrum. Here is the question at hand: You are an artist of some kind, a painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and you have been working for years of your life to become gifted at what you do. You learn that the world is going to end in 30 days, and all human life and everything we have ever created is going to be destroyed. Humanity will never rise again, and all works of humanity will

Winding down doesn’t mean done. I am always a little sad at the end of every gardening year because I have to wait from about November 15th to about April 15th before I see signs of life in the garden again. Everything goes to sleep, folds up on itself, and waits. I won’t lie. I am envious of those who live in warmer climate zones sometimes and grow an extra two months or more. Fall in the damp garden I have tasks to do in the yard, like moving stones about, mulching, cutting

I’m going to give away a spoiler: in the most amazing story I have ever seen, heard, or read, the hero dies in the end. They may fight...

The Old Ball and Chain... My wife won’t let me get fat. Within limits. I am very grateful she won’t. I won’t let her be sedentary, though...

On Thursday, I am picking up a cake for a dead man. I do not write much in the way of true details about my personal life on this site....

Trust me, stay for the result of this... In the last thirty minutes the following things have happened and the following thoughts have...

Not this kind of acting out... I was recently reading Aristotle's Poetics . It is the earliest surviving work of Greek dramatic theory...

So many people seem to be ashamed of themselves. There are things to be ashamed of, but people are ashamed of the wrong things. I’m not...

It makes me angry when otherwise amazing people find excuses to fail. Plenty has been written about what I am about to say, and none of...