In today's Thursday Roundup, we look at the things keeping me from falling too deeply into the soft arms of insanity. Who knew when we closed our doors five months ago that we'd still be standing at our windows wishing for a simpler time when we could go outside and mouth kiss our neighbors. Because that's what we did before the quarantine, right? I don't know; it has been such a long time. Such...
On paper, the idea of a book trailer makes sense. So much of what we consume on the webernets is in video form, although usually it's in a tiny window with the sound off as we struggle to read the captions. It just so happened the other day that I saw a blog post about creating book trailers, and they mentioned that Canva can do it now. So I loaded up the ol' computer and went to have a look for...
I was doom-scrolling Twitter the other day and like a sudden ray of light through a storm, I saw an ad for Sara Gran's Come Closer. Normally, I don't pay attention to book ads on Twitter, but this one came with a quote from Bret Easton Ellis, who I don't understand as a person or an artist but whose opinions on books I'll listen to occasionally. Regarding Come Closer, Easton writes "What begins...
Everyone's got a side hustle, and mine is writing dystopian cyber-thrillers loosely based on my experiences as a teenage hacker trying to take down a global conglomerate with my knowledge of LOGO and a 28.8bps modem. My books won't make you healthier, stronger, or more attractive. They aren't unique pieces of art you can hang on your wall. But they will take you to an alternate reality where...
Scene: Kitchen at sunrise. Smell of bread warming in the toaster. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” playing un-ironically on the Amazon Echo. A wubanub sails through the air and lands at the feet of Daniel (D). Matador, still in his pajamas, glowers intensely.
There had been rumors about VNet circulating around the message boards and chat rooms, stories about a virtual world that felt more real than reality. And while some of the claims were wild and their sources questionable, one common thread always seemed to come up—the idea that when the two services were put side-by-side, it was VNet where the user felt more present. The Net was home to many...
We started with learning the numbers, then counting until we reached 100, and now, despite his mathematically challenged father, our little Matador can now do basic addition. It's wild for everyone involved. Matador is happy to be solving problems, and we're happy revisiting some of the basic building blocks of how numbers work. It had not occurred to me that I would one day be teaching my son...
Last week, this gorgeous mofo ate an entire drumstick, bone and all, right out of my hand. Luckily, it seems years spent eating poop and cardboard has given our boy a stomach of steel, and he suffered no ill effects.
If I had to choose a couple of examples of the aesthetic I try to bring to my novels, one would be the 1995 cinematic masterpiece Hackers, and the other the 1994 groundbreaking FMV video game Burn:Cycle. Adjectives mine. This game and this movie were an incredible one-two punch of style and attitude that landed squarely in 14/15 year old me's brain. And although my books tend to be more Matrix...
The synth didn’t hit until later that night. Curtis became aware of it in stages as foreign threads in his biochip popped off, executed some quantum change to his mood, and then expired. Over and over, like pop rocks sizzling at the back of his throat. Only this time, the sensation was far more intense than a little tickle behind his nostrils; the synth code ran on his biochip, and the biochip...
I'm a Science Fiction author, so I mostly post about my experiences with writing, publishing, marketing, and self-loathing.
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