Prose

A Psychoanalysis of Firearms

"We are going to study a problem that no one has managed to approach objectively, one in which the initial charm of the object is so strong that it still has the power to warp the minds of the clearest thinkers and to keep bringing them back to the poetic fold in which dreams replace thought and poems conceal theorems. This problem is the psychological problem posed by our convictions about fire. It seems to me so definitely psychological in nature that I do not hesitate to speak of a psychoanalysis of fire."

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Camus & Crystal

Some writers write about inspiration. I have ideas, but the writing itself? I couldn't pin down an inspiration for the life of me. The stuff drops off my fingertips. I'm not always sure where it comes from. Maybe it's in the wrist action.

I do have a couple of cautionary tales. Tales that tell me, don't worry about perfection. Just write the next word and keep going. Then go back and fix it. You don't want to be Joseph Grand or Larry Donner. Read more about Camus & Crystal

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Real People's History

Couldn't sleep at all last night, and it's all because of history. Caught a little bit of Charlie Rose and a wonderful discussion of the Higgs bosun before drifting blissfully off, only to find myself awake at 2:30 or so. The episode of Sherlock Holmes then showing was a little too dramatic for sleep inducement, so I cruised a few channels looking for something interesting enough to keep my own thoughts at bay but soporific enough to send me back where I belonged, when I chanced upon this running on the other PBS station. Read more about Real People's History

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On Edge

My fellow critics at Writer's Cramp are constantly carping about what they see as a certain passivity in my fiction. Where's the tension? they keep asking. Where's the conflict? Why does she keep stopping to eat? Why doesn't she kick some ass?

I have begun responding (rather sulkily, I must admit), "Isn't there enough tension in the world? Don't we have enough conflict?" Read more about On Edge

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