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For 2016, a new short story every month

I’m blessed that writing (sort of)(barely) pays the bills. But one result of taking something you love and turning it into work is that it becomes an obligation rather than an escape. You HAVE to do that if you want to make a living from it, of course — I would have faltered years ago if I didn’t decide that I had to prioritize writing in the same way you do any other job — but you lose a little of what drew you to it in the first place. For me, it was the joy of playing with words; of creating people and situations out of whole cloth; and of looking at a page and saying, “Holy shit, I made that!” These days, I…
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I’ve got to get the hell off Facebook

More and more these days, I’m finding myself reconsidering my relationship with Facebook. It has nothing to do with privacy issues (though they are quite real), Facebook’s sketchy business practices (ditto), or a desire to have a smaller Internet footprint (as an author, I actually need a larger Internet footprint). It’s not even because I do social media marketing on a freelance basis, and hence burn myself out on surfing Facebook (I do it under a different account than my personal account, anyway). It’s because the atmosphere is turning me into the kind of negative, cynical, angry person I long ago left behind. I’ve been down that road. I have no intention of revisiting it. It’s not who I want to be. Perhaps it’s the…
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George Lucas is the Internet’s most undeserving punching bag

A movie comes out today, a small little thing that may have slipped past your notice. A few people might go and see it. The release of the first new Star Wars movie in many years makes today something of a geek holiday, but amid all the glee and celebrating the movie is going to be something else. Something far less positive: incessant bitching about what an awful person George Lucas is. Because on the Internet, no mention of Star Wars is complete without also mentioning how George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars, ruined everything you hold dear by being the worst person in the world. I’d say that has gotten old, but it got old years ago. Instead, I’ll say that it’s…
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News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

Read the comments on any news story involving a violent crime or follow any active news feed, and you will see comment after comment lamenting the state of the world and talking about how fearful we have to be of, well, pretty much everyone. If the comments at your local news site are anything to go by, you could be the victim of a home invasion at any moment. Your children are in danger of being snatched up 24 hours a day. That guy in your neighborhood taking a walk is probably a rapist. And so on. The problem with all this fear is that it’s largely baseless. Unless you live in a community like Camden, NJ or St. Louis, MO, chances are that you’re…
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Writer smashes reviewer with a wine bottle, aka How NOT to handle getting a bad review

I’ve touched on authors having meltdowns when criticized a few times before (like this guy or this woman’s now deleted Amazon war), but this one takes the cake. A year or so ago, British author self-published a novel inspired by the woman he was stalking. Seriously. He blogged extensively about stalking her, law enforcement got involved, and he eventually wrote a fairy tale in which she was the main character. Given that he blogs extensively about mental illness, I have to guess that he’s a wee bit unstable. Anyway, he posted an excerpt of this work to Wattpad, where an 18-year-old Scottish girl gave it a harsh review. Among other things, she said: This is painful. Everything is written through telling and purple prose which…
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