I keep changing my mind about today’s topic! First an announcement. Recently agent Rachelle Gardner ran a fun contest, which she does with some frequency. This one was a 100-word story based on a writing prompt—a picture of a young girl seated on a small suitcase. Today she posted the finalists, and wonder of wonders,

So I’ve determined my new writing goal: Create no reader confusion. And I’ve also deduced that creating reader curiosity is not the same as confusion. In fact, the former is desirable and a key factor as to whether or not a reader will continue on with my story. Like so much in life, then, there

Yesterday I mentioned some things that cause confusion—conflicting facts, improper motivation, a lack of adequate details to ground a scene, and a lack of foreshadowing. In trying to avoid confusion, however, I’m opening myself up to another novel killer—a boring story. Well, maybe not a boring story but a story told in a boring way. I

In an idea that I can only describe as scrumptawesome, Scott McCaughey of R.E.M. (and the Minus 5!) has joined forces with Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate to form The Baseball Project. Their first album hits stores on July 8th and is called “Volume 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails”. Guess what this album is

To begin I can only quote Steve Yegge’s voluminous body of work recently, I was struck by a 2005 entry on practicing programming from the original posting at Coding horror: Contrary to what you might believe, merely doing your job every day doesn’t qualify as real practice. Going to meetings isn’t practicing your people skills, and

  I happened to see this article today and I thought I would share it with you. (CLICK HERE) I remember when I used to go out and dance frequently to the house music sounds of Steve “Silk” Hurley, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, and Chip E in Chicago.  I would have lots of fun and I would

[Image via Leslie Hawes] This isn’t Apple news, but it is definitely a huge loss in the comic world. George Carlin died Sunday, age 71, of heart failure. AP has a full story at the link. RIP. Thanks Paul Salzman for the tweet. [AP Link]

More than 30 artists from the region are showing at the Art Affair in the Country, the Manchester Artists Association’s 14th annual such happening. It’s going on Saturday, June 14, at the Harmony Learning Center at 54 Constitution Dr. in Bedford, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the rain date is June 15). Steve Previte,

So, the other day, I get an invitation at work to go to a screening of Dirty Harry at the Director’s Guild in honor of its DVD re-release. It promised that oodles of famous people would be there, including Clint himself. Of course, I signed up. The day of the event was an immensely annoying one.