Harry

THE STATE OF THE AUTHOR ADDRESS

Let’s talk briefly about where things stand for me as an author in the fall of 2018. There’s some personal stuff here and an update on new books. 

First of all, my wife and I have been living in this apartment for 24 years come Oct 3. And sometime in the upcoming months we’re going to b...

LET’S BE MINDFUL OF FAKE HURRICANE PHOTOS

from the blog: 

With Hurricane Florence hitting the coast of the USA, take a minute to familiarize yourself a few of the most common fake viral photos that people share on social media,...

As Promised, Short Reviews of Some Books I've Read Recently

These include Amazon Affiliate links, so don’t be shocked if a couple of pennies come my way if you decide any of these books are interesting.

2018-08-27 20:03:26 +0000 UTC View Post

Deleted Scene from my WIP: The Crown of Infamy

I know I promised a post with book recommendations, but that's on hold while I manage other things. Soon, though. 

In the meantime, I just had to revise the plot of the novel I'm currently working on, The Crown of Infamy, which meant that I cut a few scenes, and I thought I'd share o...

SLAPSTICK AND NEW FICTION: SHARING SOME PERSONAL STUFF HERE INSTEAD OF ON SOCIAL

My Saturday was supposed to be fun. I was going to finish up my day’s writing, then pop over to the Summerfest celebration, which is basically the weekend when our local chamber of commerce rounds up food trucks, a beer garden, and some local musicians/cover bands. Not tremendously fun, but it’s...

DODGING BOTH ROCK AND HARD PLACE: THE UNCOMPROMISING HERO

I watched MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT last week, then rewatched BLACK PANTHER a few days later, and I was struck by the similarities. Both are about good men in a situation where other people expect them to be ruthless if they want to succeed. Both refuse but succeed anyway, partly through a circle ...

WHY YOU SHOULD GO SEE BLINDSPOTTING

Would it seem incongruous is I said these two different things about BLINDSPOTTING: 

1) It’s a film about gentrification.
2) The last 30 minutes have more tension and intensity than any thriller or action movie I’ve seen in the past year. 

Typically, when I see a movie in th...

THE NEW IRON FIST TRAILER IS FINE WHEN IT NEEDS TO BE GREAT.

Here’s the first trailer for S2 of Iron Fist, and if I’m being honest, I don’t love it. 

It’s not terrible, not like the trailers for S1 (“Where did he learn martial arts?”) but S1 was so terrible that I wanted this to blow me out of the water.

It doesn’t. It’s a compete...

THE SPFBO BUMP(?): CONTESTS AND BOOK SALES

A little over a week ago, the final results of the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off) competition came in. In case you didn’t know, 2018-06-24 18:22:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Young Men in Groups

I noticed this a couple of weeks ago and I tried to put off a response until my interest in it fell away. It hasn’t. Therefore: 

It started with this tweet from Chuck Wendig: 

If yo...

Verfremdungseffekt and the Modern Theseus: A Short(ish) Review of DAVE MADE A MAZE

I came across this movie in an odd way. It was literally lying on the floor in the library; someone meant to check it out, but dropped it while browsing through graphic novels. I looked at the cover, read the back, then opened wikipedia to make sure the Rotten Tomatoes score was not below 40%. Then�...

Yeah. Right: On the artificiality of narrative and the suspension of disbelief

If you hate spoilers for movies, especially the new Avengers picture, don't read farther. 

My kid doesn't like action movies. 

He won't overlook the artificial aspects of them to lose himself in the moment. In Mad Max: Fury Road, for example, when Tom Hardy jumped ...

"I Don't Want To Be What They Made Me." A Review of JESSICA JONES S2

When I finished watching the second season of Jessica Jones (the first time through) I tweeted this: 

Now that I’ve seen it all the way through three times does my opinion still hold up? 

Randomness for 3/23

1) What happens when bookstore employees get bored. This is delightful.

2) The literal transla...

RANDOMNESS FOR 2/21

1) Longest-standing video game record declared ‘impossible,’ thrown out after 35 years (update)

2) “She wrote it but…” 2018-02-21 19:49:37 +0000 UTC View Post

Villains out of ordinary folk

Over on Marie Brennan's blog, I wrote about how I created one of the villains in The Twisted Path from an actual guy I met while touring Lisbon. Check it out. And if you find it interesting, please share. 

PODCAST REVIEW OF THE WAY INTO CHAOS, AND AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

… Who happens to be me. 

The podcast is right here. Podbean. iTunes.

I l...

“WE’RE NOT IN A PROPHECY.” “LET THE PAST DIE.” “I’M SCARED.” THREE SHORT REVIEWS

I think that, if I group my reviews together, I can keep them short. So I’m going to try that. 

Bright

Everyone who creates a fantasy with a contemporary setting has two major issues they need to address. Okay, it’s more than two, but as far as I’m concerned, thes...

SPFBO, THE SELF-PUBLISHED FANTASY BLOG OFF

Have you guys heard of this? 

Author Mark Lawrence, in an attempt to help self-publishing authors publicize their work, created a Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off. The system is simple: He recruited ten reviewers with blogs, solicited 300 fantasy novels from self-published authors, and distrib...

WHERE THINGS STAND WITH THE TWISTED PATH AFTER ONE WHOLE DAY

[It seemed redundant to post a download link to the new 20P novella on Patreon and also the permanent post for it. Instead, I'm going to put up this followup post, which links back to the main post.]

Let’s see: 

The Twisted Path has its 2017-12-19 16:23:58 +0000 UTC View Post

New Twenty Palaces Novella Available Now

Hey, want that new Twenty Palaces Novella? 

Go ahead and click that Dropbox link above. When it prompts you to sign in, just click Cancel. Then you get the zip file that will open into a .mobi and a .epub, depending on your ebook reading pleasure. 

And if you like it, please post a...

Re that new Twenty Palaces I've been promising.

I’ve been talking about this here and there, so let’s hit the topic one more time, but with art.

The new Twenty Palaces novella, The Twisted Path, will be released soon. I just got the copyedit back, so sometime in the next few days, I guess? Being a novella, it’ll be ebook only, an...

Changing Patreon fees and The Twisted Path

On December 6th, I got an email from Patreon telling me they were going to increase the charges that you, the patrons, were going to pay. They pitched it to me as though it was a way to make their payments more predictable. I was supposed to be 95% of the pledges rather than the fluctuating amount i...

SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE ALGORITHM: A REVIEW OF PAST EDIT NOTES AND A HARD TRUTH

In which the author makes an embarrassing confession

One of my little secrets is that, in between projects, I’ll sometimes read a book about writing. It’s always useful to reinforce the basics, and seeing how other writers approach the blank page gives me insights into my own work. 2017-11-22 23:54:16 +0000 UTC View Post

JUSTICE LEAGUE (NO SPOILERS)

Okay. I wasn’t going to see it until next week, but reviews said it was sorta good, so I caught a 7pm sneak tonight. 

The theater was mostly empty, a very bad sign. 

The movie itself was “pretty good for superhero movies” if that’s any kind of rating that matters. They fina...

Mohawks, Barrel Fires, and a Few Nice Shots: a highly qualified defense of episode 7 of STRANGER THINGS 2

This post contains spoilers for the second season of STRANGER THINGS 2. You should only read it if:

a) You have already seen the show

b) You actively like spoilers

c) You enjoy discussions of storytelling but have no interest in this particular show. 

M...

BLADE RUNNER 2049: BEAUTIFUL AND SAD AND WTF? COME ON, GUYS

In my attempt to return my online activity to spaces I control, I’m going to be dropping reviews here, too. To start, Blade Runner 2049.

First of all, it’s a beautiful movie. And it’s a sad one, too. That’s not a spoiler; it’s obvious from the first few minutes that this shit will turn t...

“YOU HAVE NOTHING BUT A WAR INSIDE YOU.” FINAL PUNISHER TRAILER AND PREMIERE DATE

The show airs on Nov 17, which is less than a month after it was announced. I wonder if Netflix is hoping to build anticipation by delaying the release day announcement as long as possible. 

Not that it matters, since I’ll be binge-watching it on the first day, and I won’t be watching pre...

“YOU HAVE NOTHING BUT A WAR INSIDE YOU.” FINAL PUNISHER TRAILER AND PREMIERE DATE

The show airs on Nov 17, which is less than a month after it was announced. I wonder if Netflix is hoping to build anticipation by delaying the release day announcement as long as possible. 

Not that it matters, since I’ll be binge-watching it on the first day, and I won’t be watching pre...

BRINGING IT HOME: A FOLLOWUP TO LAST POST

For the last few years, I’ve been putting more and more of my thoughts into Twitter threads, and it’s time to pull back from that. The people on Twitter are great, except for the ones who aren’t, but the company is a parade of fail. What’s more, it’s all so ephemeral. If I write about a St...