On Writing Erotica

Recently I've dipped by toe into the pool of erotica, writing a series of stories set in a swinger club that I call, appropriately enough, Tales from the Club.  The stories aren't housed on wordpress - they contain very adult content, so I have them on a certain website that allows such things.  I won't...

The Magical Child trope needs to die for a few decades

It may have started with the second V series, the 1980s sci-fi miniseries that introduced as part of its story line a human/alien hybrid child.  At the end of the second miniseries, the child had "magic powers" and used them to stop the aliens.  This was, for me, the first time I encountered the Magical...

Artistic Integrity

This is another post about the Mass Effect 3 ending.  If you don't care, feel free to skip it.  However, this isn't a direct discussion of the ending, but rather some of the counter-arguments to why Bioware should write a new ending. Many of those opposed to Bioware releasing an updated/changed ending are hinging their...

Why Mass Effect 3’s ending makes me mad

SPOILERS AHEAD.  Seriously, if you want to play any of the Mass Effect games with no spoilers, do not continue to read this post. O.k., you were warned... I just finished Mass Effect 3 this weekend and five minutes afterward I was online looking to see how many other people hated the ending.  I say...

It’s not what kills you, but what you can survive that defines horror

Let's call this the Law of Pain: nothing that outright kills you is as scary as something that leaves you alive in a state that might as well be death. I was watching movies this weekend and playing a little LA Noire (great game, by the way) when I realized something: things that just kill...

Library of the Living Dead – Made you Flinch Again – Cancelled

So it seems that an anthology that had accepted one of my works, Cousins, has been cancelled.  Library of the Living Dead Press has fallen on hard times and the publisher can't afford to put out anthologies for a while. It's a sad note to end the week on, but I understand business decisions have...

Am I dead or am I living?

The title of this post is taken from Sting's "Something the Boy Said" from Ten Summoner's Tales.  It refers to the fact I haven't posted to my beloved blog in ages. Why?  Well, to put it mildly, I've been busy at my day job.  The truth is, I've been run ragged, and it's not likely...

Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for a Short Story

Here are Vonnegut's eight rules for writing a short story: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only...

How to be a writer…

Just a few of the words of John D. McDonald from his wonderful introduction to Stephen King's Night Shift. "If you want to write, you write." Simple, elegant, and perfectly reflective of how to be a writer.  If you want to write, you write.  If you want to sing, you sing.  If you want to...

Word of the Day: Chiralism

Chiralism is a pseudo-loan word from Japanese: Chiralism: The act or practice of keeping one in suspense, especially with erotic undertones. A stripper would be a "chiralist", for example.  The Japanese "panty shot" is probably the best example of why this term comes to us from the land of the rising sun.  The word itself,...