So, it’s October and
National Novel Writing Month begins again in November. I sat out last year. But I think I’m going to give it another try this year. I’ve been feeling a lot more creative since we moved to Blacksburg, and since I don’t have to spend so much time thinking [...] Read more »

Posted in Art and Writing 1 Comment »

It’s been a bad few days for logo design. First Adobe
kidney-punches us with a crappy new me-too speech bubble + monocle logo. What, doesn’t Adobe have any talented artists?
And then, while we’re still writhing in agony, Wacom
kicks us in the head with a logo probably designed by someone’s thirteen-year-old nephew for $20. No, [...] Read more »

Posted in Art and Writing 5 Comments »

I’m gearing up for
National Novel Writing Month again this year. In the process I’m looking through some of my novel-writing books, trying to pull the practical clues out. (That means I’m ignoring
Natalie Goldberg.)
One piece of advice I find repeated several places is that new writers should avoid mixing genres. There are two reasons [...] Read more »

Posted in Art and Writing 4 Comments »

…That Piss Me Off.
I’ve decided I don’t need to keep every piece of every CD I own, so the most egregious and unrewarding packaging for some of my CD box sets are going in the trash. It’s not high value clutter-tossing, but every little bit counts. Here are three boxes that aren’t worth keeping.

3. [...] Read more »

Posted in Art and Writing, Music 4 Comments »

There’s a lot I can say about Harry Potter in the antipathy he generates in people, but I’d rather talk about Washington Post critic Ron Charles. Here’s Ron:

It happened on a dark night, somewhere in the middle of Book IV. For three years, I had dutifully read the “Harry Potter” series to my daughter, [...] Read more »

Posted in Art and Writing 8 Comments »