World Philosophy Day

Apparently today is World Philosophy Day (or maybe yesterday was, or tomorrow will be… it all depends upon a host of epistomological questions which have been investigated for thousands of years but which have never been resolved). In honor of the event, BBC News Magazine has an article featuring four philosophical conundrums which will make [...]

More on prop 8 (I can’t help myself)

Today, the California Supreme Court has agreed to take on three lawsuits challenging Proposition 8. Let’s hope they do the right thing, and overturn it. According to the article, “All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to [...]

Story of the Week #17: Little Fluffy Wiggletoes and the Big Revenge

This week’s story is a sequel to a story I wrote a few years ago, “Little Fluffy Wiggletoes“, which proved to be one of my most popular stories, for some reason. I’ve been asked for a sequel for some time, so here it is.

I’ve got a whole cycle of stories for Little Fluffy Wiggletoes in mind. He’s got quite the adventure ahead of him.

November’s stories are all going to be very short. After all, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which I participate in each year.

Enjoy!

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Proposition 8: The Aftermath

California, which voted overwhelming for Barack Obama and which passed Proposition 2 (requiring better living conditions for egg producing chickens) somehow also passed Proposition 8, which removes the right of same sex couples to marry in California. To my way of thinking, this is ludicrous. I’ve stated before, and I’ll state again, that in a [...]

Story of the Week #16: Terrible Tales for Tiny Trolls - Moldylocks

Not much to say about this one. It’s another of the Terrible Tales for Tiny Trolls, which is turning into an ongoing series; I have a couple more in mind, and when I get around to cleaning up some of the language and removing some of the more adult components, I think these might actually work as children’s stories.

November’s stories are all going to be very short. After all, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which I participate in each year.

Enjoy!

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Speechless

On the one hand I wanted to write something brilliant and jubilant after the results of today’s election.
On the other hand, I’m speechless.
Good job, America. We’re back on track now.
Current Mood:  jubilantCurrent Music: My wife delirious with glee in the background

Story of the Week #15: The Prince’s Challenge (Sangrilicious II)

This is me, drinking the Kool-Aid, and continuing with my vampire story. “The Prince’s Challenge” is Part Two of “Sangrilicious”, which was Story of the Week #5 (on a side note, I’m rather impressed that I’ve been doing this for fifteen weeks now; that’s probably some sort of milestone).

My feelings about vampire fiction haven’t changed. I still don’t like the vast majority of it. And I’m therefore surprised that I’m finding myself drawn to Delilah’s adventures as she, a newly embraced vampire fully schooled in the traditions and culture of her species, enters and tries to take over a town which is full of what you could basically call redneck vampires. I suspect that there will be two more stories about Delilah in the next few weeks. I already know what the title of each story will be, but I’m not going to tell you what they are ahead of time.

Enjoy!

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Why I am (apparently) not a Christian

In 2004, I had the following conversation in the parking lot of a Safeway supermarket.
WOMAN: Jesus loves you, you know.
ME: That’s great. I love Jesus too.
WOMAN (pointing to my car’s bumper sticker): Then how could you be voting for John Kerry?
At the time, I wanted to reply with something like, “Because Jesus isn’t on the [...]

Sad news from the BBC

David Tennant has announced that he will be leaving the role of the Doctor after he finishes filming the next four specials that will air in 2009 and 2010. Of course, that means we have two years or so of Tennanty goodness before the eleventh Doctor takes the helm of the TARDIS.
I’ve been a fan [...]

Today’s Writing Whine

Another day, another rejection. It looks like my goal of making my first professional sale this year isn’t going to happen.
I currently have three active submissions at three professional markets. I need to come up with two more. Hm.
Current Mood:  sad

Story of the Week #14: Emissaries

This is one of those stories that I read after writing and go, “Huh? What was I thinking?” Seriously, I know this story is about something, but I’m not entirely sure what. I invite your speculations.

Fair warning: I know that some of my regular readers are disturbed by some of the more visceral imagery that can show up in my stories from time to time. Bear that in mind should you choose to proceed…

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Picture of the week

In case you haven’t already seen it, here’s the photograph that Colin Powell spoke of in his eloquent endorsement of Barack Obama on Sunday:

Maureen Dowd has an op ed column about this photograph and about the man, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, a Muslim who died for his country — America — in Iraq. As Powell [...]

Story of the Week #13: Ghoultown

This is a story I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. Honestly, who doesn’t want to write a story about zombies and cowboys? No one, that’s who. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

This story, though, got started as something else. I was going to write a haunted house story. I had the plot and the details of the house all ready to go, and I was excited about the concepts. Then something happened, and the story derailed big time. But that’s okay. This story, I think, in spite of the fact that it’s rife with cliches and anachronisms, has a lot of potential.

The main character, Zoe Garrick, is one that I’ve been holding in my head for awhile now. At first, having been inspired by The X-Files and an on-again, off-again interest in the Western genre, I thought I’d write a story, or even a series of stories, about a government agent investigating paranormal and unusual cases in the Old West. The FBI didn’t exist back then, but the Secret Service did. I figured it would be fun, kind of campy, and full of mad scientists and other great villains. Then I remembered that The Wild, Wild West already existed. Ah, well. So I made my character a US Marshall (an anachronism there; the first woman Marshall wasn’t appointed until the mid-50’s, though a woman Secret Service agent at that time wouldn’t have been any more accurate) and took her out of the loop of the paranormal and unusual investigations. And then this story took a darker turn than I had expected, and to my shock, some sort of theme emerged. I’m not sure what it is. And I’m not sure I approve. But that’s not up for me to really judge. That’s for you, the reader, to decide on your own.

So here it is, “Ghoultown”. It’s not affiliated with the band Ghoultown in any way, though I did listen to them a lot while writing this story.

Enjoy!

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Brainz

I took a quick break from writing my zombie story to browse the web, and saw this picture of John McCain:

It seriously looks like McCain is about to chow down on a helpless baby.
We seriously need to vote for Barack Obama. I, for one, do not relish the idea of cannibalistic zombies in charge of [...]

Blog Action Day: Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year the topic to address is poverty.
Honestly, I wish I had something original, clever, or wise to say about poverty. I’m not an economist. I’m not a social worker. I’ve done some work with the povery-stricken, but not much. So my participation is limited to a few random [...]