There is little in the art of writing lazier than faith as a plot point. See if these lines seem familiar: “All we can do now is believe in X” (Where X is the protagonist or, sometimes, the plucky sidekick–usually uttered when X is off doing momentous things and there’s a group of people basically…
Assorted Ramblings (blog)
Federal 2.0 – the Progressive Solution to the Current Government
Any time you have a problem, you have to boil that problem down to its bare essence. And the problem that progressives have, right now is not that the President totally opposes them. It’s not that Congress opposes them. It’s not the voters, it’s not “fake news,” and it’s not racism. All of those things…
The Reason We Study History
In 264 BC, the ancient Roman Republic became involved in a series of three wars with Carthage. Bear with me. I’m going somewhere with this. Carthage was a tough opponent, and Hannibal definitely gave Rome some problems in the 2nd Punic War, but the upshot of these things was that Rome kind of ended up…
No, I’m not doing NaNo. Don’t let me stop you.
No, we’re not doing NaNo this year. We didn’t do it last year, either. Fact is, I can’t foresee us doing a NaNoWriMo event ever again. It’s simply not an event that has value for us at our current place in our careers. Here’s what’s going on in our writing work at the moment:…
The problem isn’t misogyny, racism, bigotry, or hate.
All right, all right; I used a clickbaity title. This is Rome, I did the thing. So sue me. All of those things are problems. All of them. But I want to take them all as pieces of the puzzle, as symptoms of a much more fundamental issue that our societies are having. I’m proposing…
Quality and the Market
Is the new Ghostbusters movie any good? I have no idea. I haven’t seen it. Given the relatively decent review score (not stellar, but pretty good) over at Rotten Tomatoes, I’m thinking it’s probably a decent watch. I’ve been busy as hell, but this falls into the category of movies-I-wouldn’t-mind-watching. I read Brad Torgerson’s analysis of it, though, and…
Third Parties and How to Build Them, or, Joshua Harris for Mayor of Baltimore
I’m not sure if you’ve been paying attention, but we’ve got a couple candidates running for President who seem to irritate even their own parties. This has led to another rash of third-party candidates poking their heads up like mushrooms from bullshit. On the left, we have Jill Stein, who is almost on the ballot in half…
Our Experience with Sky Warrior Books
You may have noticed that the publisher of our novels, and many of the anthologies in which we appear, is a single publisher: Now, that’s beginning to not be the case. We’ve got some stuff with Knotted Road press, and a story coming out with WordFire, but the vast majority of what we’ve…
On Doing Something
I know all about the hating and the sneering. I’m a member of the why-bother generation myself. But why did I bother to come out here tonight? And why did you? I mean, it’s time. It begins with us. Not with politicians, the experts, or the teachers, but with us. With you, and with me….
This is how come we lose so GD always.
You know why people don’t like liberals? Cause they lose. If liberals are so fucking smart how come they lose so God-Damned Always? – Will McAvoy, The Newsroom By now, anyone who is internet savvy enough to read this blog has already seen the opening scene of The Newsroom. You’ve watched with glee as Aaron…