Why journalists hate their life

Why journalists hate their life

Posted inRandom Musings, Rants, Uncategorized
It's no secret that the world of journalism is in flux. I spent over a decade in the world of newspapers, those fussy, papery things created by ink-stained wretches, and while I can't say I don't have an extreme fondness for those old relics -- I think they're wonderful, actually -- I can say that I don't have an extreme fondness for the visionless people who so often run news organizations. My friends still in the news business don't disagree. A good friend who is an investigative journalist with a fairly large regional daily has seen his office withering under…

Art does not require pain; joy is worth celebrating

Posted inRandom Musings, Rants, Writing
I'm not much for the whole posting quotes thing, but this quote from Ursula le Guin's award-winning 'Those Who Walked Away From Omelas,' which can be read in full here, strikes me as worth sharing: "The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain ... But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold…
Complaining about things I shouldn’t complain about, aka Writing can be boring

Complaining about things I shouldn’t complain about, aka Writing can be boring

Posted inRants, Writing
Leaning forward with a glass of bourbon and ice next to me, hair frazzled. A human drama plays itself out in the background, all loud voices and chaos, but I can't pay attention because I'm under the spell of inspiration, and as those words hit the page each sparkles like a shiny gold coin. Each sentence is a hundred dollar bill constructed with the power of my words. The keyboard is on fire with the rush of my work. It's invigorating. Nah. The above scene is bullshit. Writing for pay is not always interesting. In fact, sometimes it's downright boring.…

Small town nitwits try to harass writer out of teaching job

Posted inRants
So here's a story that got me steamed. Two "think of the children!" nitwits, Deanna Stepp and Wendy Apple, of Middleburg, PA, are raising a stink because a high school teacher there also writes romance/erotic fantasy novels. The teacher of 33 years -- apparently well liked and respected by her students, according to a Facebook page in support of her -- writes on her own time, and does so under a pen name. But according to these two moral crusaders: “We are not questioning Mrs. Buranich’s teaching credentials. We are not even questioning her ability as a writer ... .…
TELEVISION: The Walking Dead was overrated

TELEVISION: The Walking Dead was overrated

Posted inGeek Stuff, Rants, Television
I'm an unashamed geek and make no bones about it. I love geek stuff. Hell, I took part in co-writing a really great geek book. Proud to have my name attached to all things geek. But this needs to be said: AMC's smash-hit television show The Walking Dead, while quite entertaining, was also highly, highly overrated by my geek brothers and sisters. Sorry, my geek brethren, but it's true. We were so caught up in the thrill of getting something delightfully geeky that we elevated the show to a lofty status it has not yet earned. Now I'm not saying…