Tor Books: The Wind Does Not Respect a Fool

Tor Books: The Wind Does Not Respect a Fool

Kahless the Unforgettable will allow Tor's obstinacy--and recount it as a warning to others, It's been six months since public slanders against Tor Books' readers and authors by company employees Irene Gallo, Moshe Feder, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden incited a boycott against the publisher. How is business at Tor these…
December 31, 20152 Comments
Nethereal Suggested for Sad Puppies 4 and Praise for Daddy Warpig

Nethereal Suggested for Sad Puppies 4 and Praise for Daddy Warpig

We're five days into the Christmas season, and my regular social media haunts are brimming with encouraging; you might even say humbling, developments. Distant Hugo Rumblings It was recently brought to my attention that my debut novel Nethereal has been recommended for inclusion on the Sad Puppies 4 reading list. For…
December 29, 20154 Comments

Geek Gab Episode 36: The Force Awakens

Join a schlock hack SF writer and the infallible Daddy Warpig for the only review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens you'll ever need!
December 27, 2015
Creed (2015)

Creed (2015)

I'm glad that Daddy Warpig and Red Letter Media made me aware of this hidden gem. Otherwise I would have missed it amid the hype surrounding other Christmas season movie releases. For the sake of those who haven't seen the movie yet, I'll keep this review as spoiler-free as possible.…
December 26, 2015
Return of the Amazon Zombie Memes

Return of the Amazon Zombie Memes

Legacy publishers just refuse to let those zombie memes die! Whether it's claiming that Amazon is a monopoly or that all eBook sales are declining, champions of the publishing status quo keep regurgitating patent falsehoods no matter how many times they're refuted. You really can't blame them. How else can…
December 24, 2015
A Discussion of Sci-Fi Soul Swapping

A Discussion of Sci-Fi Soul Swapping

The perennial subject of mind/soul-swapping as portrayed in science fiction recently came up at John C. Wright's blog. Reader Kevin Stuart Lee kicked things off. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the metaphysics of mind transfer. Does that tenet of the singularitarians and transhumanists assume materialism? If so,…
December 24, 20154 Comments
Why Oligarchs Love Equality

Why Oligarchs Love Equality

In a perfect followup to my post on why Liberalism inevitably leads to tyranny, Murray Rothbard presents a devastating explanation for why egalitarianism is always championed by elitists. Rothbard begins by debunking the modern idea of equality. For 'equality' means 'sameness' — two entities are 'equal' if and only if…
December 21, 20155 Comments
Operation: Silent Night

Operation: Silent Night

The wait is over! Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally been released to enraptured audiences. Unfortunately, I was not among them. The only showing that wasn't sold out was in 3D, which to me doesn't make movies look three-dimensional so much as it turns them blurry and induces migraines. Instead…
December 19, 2015
There’s No Voting Our Way out of This

There’s No Voting Our Way out of This

A previous post on how the tide is turning against legacy media and its Leftist bias drew commenters who rightly observed that I offered no solutions for the current political crisis. Right up front, let me point out that I'm a schlock hack SF writer who is unqualified to propose…
December 18, 2015
How to Handle Character Agency in Your Writing

How to Handle Character Agency in Your Writing

Continuing my loose series on advice for aspiring authors, it's time to address a subject that will leave hardcore outliners scratching their heads, but will have organic/discovery writers nodding in commiseration. That subject is character agency. Or, as frustrated writers lament: "What should I do if my characters want to…
December 16, 2015