BEER: Founder’s Breakfast Stout

BEER: Founder’s Breakfast Stout

Posted inCraft Beer
OOPS! Sorry, readers, this post wasn't meant to go live when it did. Most of my blog entries are written in advance and set to auto-post at a later date. Occasionally I'll set down a rough draft with the intention of returning to it later. This post was exactly that, a mere skeleton of my intended rambling about a beloved beer, but I accidentally set it to auto post. And it did. And it's here. It posted itself hours ago. You've already read it. So I'm letting it fly as is, despite the fact that it's a batch of incomplete…

On writing: when hatchet jobs are a good thing

Posted inWriting
I've mentioned before that good editors will almost always improve your work. Writers (myself included) are often too close to their own work to be completely objective about it. It's difficult to get outside your own head and read your work the way a reader would -- and that's a vital part of the polishing process. After all, if you're not writing with readers in mind, you may well be writing crap. Another blogger recently made an excellent post about working with editors, specifically newspaper editors. That's what I happen to be Monday through Friday, so I was especially delighted…
Another author temper tantrum

Another author temper tantrum

Posted inWriting
Sometimes writers (and in this case editors) just don't get it. This guy is a perfect example. He rages and rages and rages about people slamming his/his publication's work, proclaiming, "You don't get to call me unprofessional!" And then proves his critics right by acting exactly that. Unprofessional. What this guy doesn't seem to get is that yes, people do get to call him unprofessional. It's part of the unwritten contract you agree to you put your work in front of the public -- especially when you're putting material out in the form of a magazine, newspaper, or website offering…
Writing through a rough patch

Writing through a rough patch

Posted inRandom Musings, Writing
There are times when the words don't come, and what words that do come make you cringe. You sit down and work, you reach your writing goals each day, but you hate every last bit of work you produce. I'm in the midst of one of those rough patches. For the last week or so I've wanted to toss my work-in-progress in the trash. It's not writer's block -- writer's block is bullshit -- it's something else. It's "this sucks, this story sucks, these words suck, why am I bothering with this?" I hate that feeling. I've mentioned a few…

A midnight visit from the Vampyr

Posted inFilms, Videos
Surprise! It's midnight on Halloween. You thought my week o' public domain horror films was over with Night of the Living Dead. You were wrong. Director Carl Dreyer directed one of the great films of all time, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which I once called "a blessing to the world of cinema." Four years later he would direct Vampyr, a ghostly, ostentatious, bold, experimental film. It's dark and slow and brooding and moody and forgoes an engrossing story in exchange for an engrossing atmosphere. Twilight this ain't. Happy midnight. Enjoy the film. (I've changed the embedded video to…