Apparently I've been remiss in blogging about my blogging. My latest guest post at the Association for Mormon Letters is on the topic of "Mentioning Mormons in science fiction." In March, I interviewed author Brad R. Torgersen. In April, I interviewed author Nancy Fulda.
Brandon Sanderson teaches a creative writing class at BYU, and last semester I had the opportunity to give a guest lecture on the subject of writing short stories. A video recording of the lecture is now available on YouTube:
I saw The Avengers a few days ago, and I thought it was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it had a few plot holes the size of the Incredible Hulk. A while back, when The Dark Knight was all the rage, I wrote up a little comparison On the Codex Writers forum between that film and X2:... read more »
This week's Russian pop song: "Balloon" by Mr. Credo. (The version I usually listen to is a remix of this that mostly features the chorus.) Here are the translated lyrics (courtesy of Google Translate and lyricstranslate.com): The balloon, The air in the sense of like my fantasy, He hangs between heaven and earth, How often do I hang out Flying... read more »
Pretty much everyone who meets her is, of course. But what I'm actually referring to is the new fairy-tale novel Enchanted, which was written by my friend Alethea Kontis, author of the Alpha-Oops picture books. Way back in 2005, I participated in a fairy-tale-writing contest on the Codex Writers forum. Through various skulduggerous means I managed to take first place... read more »
This week's video of still another of my favorite Russian pop songs: "Stars Await Us" by Mirage. (The version I listen to is by Tsvetnoye Kino featuring Milena, but the two versions are very similar, and I couldn't find a real music video for the other.) Here are the translated lyrics (courtesy of Google Translate and nomorelyrics.net): Night. Closed the... read more »
A couple of days ago, I spotted people on Twitter using the hashtag #LessAmbitiousNovels to present joke titles for... well, less ambitious novels. Here are some of my favorites of the ones I came up with: 1974 A Passage to Indiana A Shrub Grows in Brooklyn A Waiter of Earthsea A Wrinkle in Cloth Fit Club Howl's Stationary Castle I... read more »
Here's this week's video of yet another of my favorite Russian pop songs: "Call Me, Call" by Irina Muraveva. The version I listen to says the singer is "Anaunet," but the two versions are nearly identical, and I couldn't find a music video for the other. Although there is music and singing at the beginning, the real song doesn't start... read more »
A while back, I mentioned that I was editing an anthology for Writing for Charity. The anthology is now available as an ebook, and today we're doing a "book bomb" to try to get it to rise high in the Amazon.com rankings by having as many people as possible buy it today. All the royalties from the book will go... read more »
Here's this week's video of yet another of my favorite Russian pop songs: "Hour for Two" by DJ Slon & Angel-A. Here are the translated lyrics (courtesy of Google Translate and masteroff.org): Rhythms of two different countries In the bars do not fall, I live here, you there, Birds flock to catch up. Raise up the ladder, And the skyscrapers... read more »
