All posts for Uncategorized / General in 2020
The Visualization Trigger 2020-12-28 07:00:00-05:00
Sometimes I get ideas for a project by way of nothing but a potential piece of cover art.
Those Damn Darlings 2020-12-24 07:00:00-05:00
To kill them or not kill them?
Now Exhale, Already 2020-12-19 16:00:00-05:00
This year did leave its mark on me. I only now see this.
Kid Stuff, In Theory 2020-12-11 16:00:00-05:00
The single hardest thing I could try to write would be a children's book.
Not Enough There There 2020-12-10 07:00:00-05:00
With many of the stories I've taken up only to abandon, what was most interesting to me about them seemed impossible to communicate to others.
The Disinhibition Prescription 2020-12-04 07:00:00-05:00
On creativity: The opposite of inhibition is disinhibition, not uninhibition; an act, rather than a state.
Minimal Headwordspace 2020-12-02 16:00:00-05:00
2020 just about killed my enthusiasm for reading, which was finicky to begin with.
Thinking Inside The (X)Box 2020-11-30 07:00:00-05:00
The latest toy in the house: an XBOX S.
Drafts Just Point The Way 2020-11-28 16:00:00-05:00
Drafts of a work are experiments. They just point the way, and help you narrow it further.
The Thanks I Gave 2020-11-27 16:00:00-05:00
This year I did something I'd long avoided: I hosted Thanksgiving at my place. (For three.)
Supertoys Last All Winter Long, One Hopes 2020-11-23 07:00:00-05:00
My newly uncrated Dell notebook, and my general unease about anything brand spanking new.
The Breakdown Blues 2020-11-21 07:00:00-05:00
The new laptop I picked up on the ultra-cheap lived up to the old adage that you get what you pay for.
Maybe I'm In The Wrong Line Of Work 2020-11-16 16:00:00-05:00
I've toyed with the idea of going on camera for fun and (possibly) profit. I never follow through, though.
The Best Is Yet To Come, He Said 2020-11-11 07:00:00-05:00
Akira Kurosawa is reputed to have said that whenever he is asked which of his films is his favorite, he replies, "My next one." A phrase I've taken to heart.
A World Waited And A World Attained, 2020 Edition 2020-11-06 16:00:00-05:00
The world awaited is not yet the world attained, but we took a step in the right direction today.
The Beatings Shall Continue, And All That 2020-11-02 12:00:00-05:00
It is not required to substitute ugly things for lovely ones in the name of some spurious bid for truth.
Stiff Upper Lip And All That 2020-11-01 18:00:00-05:00
Just a few things as the First Tuesday In November approaches.
New Blood 2020-11-01 07:00:00-05:00
On reinventing horror tropes for the modern moment.
The Todd Rundgren Effect 2020-10-31 08:00:00-04:00
What do you do when you're best known for a throwaway work?
Malign Equivalencies 2020-10-29 17:00:00-04:00
Why "they're all terrible" is the philosophy of suckers.
Everything But The Thing In Front Of Me 2020-10-29 08:00:00-04:00
Sometimes you solve all the other problems, not this one.
The Least Worst Form Of Governance 2020-10-20 17:00:00-04:00
Two cheers for democracy, and all that.
No Good Teacher Says "Don't" 2020-10-19 08:00:00-04:00
No good teacher worth their salt says "Don't do X." They say, "If you do X, this is what's involved."
No, You Really Couldn't Make This Up If You Tried 2020-10-03 17:00:00-04:00
On the notion that if our moment in time were a story, nobody would believe a word of it.
Pointblank 2020-09-29 17:00:00-04:00
'At Close Range', 34 years later -- and on the telling of stories about those with doomed lives.
"You Don't Have To Live With The Bloody Man" 2020-09-26 17:00:00-04:00
On portraits of the artist as a complete jackass, and why we need new kinds of stories about artists.
Why You Can't Shame The Shameless 2020-09-20 08:00:00-04:00
On the largely ineffectual ways we've grappled with the corruption of public morals.
How Much More History Can We Live Through? 2020-09-19 08:00:00-04:00
And once we do, what do we take away from it all?
Upfront Without Being On The Nose 2020-09-18 17:00:00-04:00
For some of my books it's a lot harder than I realized to create good cover art.
The Innumeracy Of Moral Equivalency 2020-09-15 18:00:00-04:00
Why some people respond to reports of deaths in numbers with minimizing tactics.
Selecting For Stupid 2020-09-14 18:00:00-04:00
Why spam scams are illiterate by design: to weed out the skeptical and keep the suckers.
You'll Pay To Know What You Really Feel! 2020-09-09 08:00:00-04:00
On Stjepan G. Meštrović's notion of the "postemotional society".
Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be, Not That It Ever Was 2020-09-06 08:00:00-04:00
I don't want better versions of the past. I want a future that has the kind of better only the future can offer.
High And Low 2020-08-30 08:00:00-04:00
On the marriage of popular and artistic sensibilities (not that they were all that far from each other?)
Blankout! Blankout! 2020-08-27 08:00:00-04:00
On the terror of facing a blank page (or screen), for the N-th time.
One Week Later ... 2020-08-22 08:00:00-04:00
Calendar on the wall tells me I've been running my new blog software for about a week now. Successfully!
The Saddest Of Nightmares 2020-08-21 08:00:00-04:00
From uneasy sleep came the uneasiest of dreams.
Do The Next Thing 2020-08-18 08:00:00-04:00
Me vs. doing sequels, yet again.
Notice Anything Different? 2020-08-16 13:10:00-04:00
With my blog, that is? I hope not, as great things are afoot under the hood.
Deep Dive 2020-08-14 17:00:00-04:00
I dove deep this week into rewriting my blog software. Almost didn't come up for air.
From Something, To Something 2020-08-08 17:00:00-04:00
With your sources for a story, it ain't where you start, it's where you end up, and how you get there.
I Liked The Movie Better. No, Really. 2020-07-29 17:00:00-04:00
Sometimes adapting something, as one form of remaking it, can do it a favor.
Let's Not Try To Understand All This Too Quickly 2020-07-26 17:00:00-04:00
In a conversation with a friend, about the way our crazy moment in time is shaping our creative decisions, I kept coming back to a phrase I've said to myself before: "Let's not try to understand all this too quickly."
You Deserve To Know What's Up, Late July 2020 Edition 2020-07-24 17:00:00-04:00
Much hard work ensuing here at Chez Infinimata, and on multiple fronts: current book, new book, software.
Down These Mean Streets 2020-07-20 08:00:00-04:00
How much of a debt I owe not to science fiction or fantasy, but another genre: the hard-boiled noir.
Kauffmann Syndrome 2020-07-19 17:00:00-04:00
The problem with much criticism: it proceeds from the flawed premise that art is hierarchical.
The Code Hole 2020-07-19 08:00:00-04:00
I meant to blog a little more this week, but life happened, and I also stumbled face-first into what I can only call a code hole.
Hard Work Is Its Own Reward, Or So They Told Me 2020-07-14 08:00:00-04:00
Not a great week or so, to be honest. Much emotional rollercoastering, much of it project related. And not in the ways you might think.
The Reconstruction Blues 2020-07-13 08:00:00-04:00
Blogging software, rewritten from scratch.
This Old Blogging App 2020-07-06 08:00:00-04:00
Should I rewrite my existing blogging app, or ditch it entirely? (Spoiler: DIY! DIY!)
The Payoff Is The Setup 2020-07-04 12:00:00-04:00
Meaning, go straight to the good stuff and don't make people wait.
Goodbye, Genji. Hello, Infinimata. 2020-07-02 00:00:00-04:00
Welcome to the next generation of my personal publishing imprint.
From Scratch Every Time 2020-06-30 17:00:00-04:00
Every single time I start a new story, I'm starting from scratch in more ways than one.
The Eye Closes: Milton Glaser, 1929-2020 2020-06-27 13:00:00-04:00
Goodbye to a man with a little more vision than most, and whole lot of heart.
Publish Or Perish? Why Not Both? 2020-06-26 21:00:00-04:00
On the ways self-publishing gets dinged as illegitimate, and how to rebut them.
Original Conclusions 2020-06-23 17:00:00-04:00
It's hard to do your own thing, and for good reasons.
Crossover Events 2020-06-22 08:00:00-04:00
For fun I ran down a list of popular culture things that nobody really had expectations for, but which sort of escaped their box and went on to become major cultural landmarks.
The Pop Problem 2020-06-18 17:00:00-04:00
What is it I really want from popular culture? Typically something rare.
Why That Story? 2020-06-17 13:00:00-04:00
What does it mean to say that I want to tell a given story about a given person or a given thing? Why me and not someone else? What do I bring to the table?
Four Years Of Facelessness 2020-06-14 17:00:00-04:00
According to the fossil record, I quit using Facebook about four years ago, give or take a month. I'm still off. I regret nothing.
Faster Typewriters 2020-06-11 20:00:00-04:00
I never want to make the argument that we should refrain from making things easier as some kind of hedge against mediocrity.
Ousmane Sembene Remembered 2020-06-11 19:00:00-04:00
My turn to throw out props for a black creator, one who doesn't get much press in any circle: filmmaker and author Ousmane Sembene.
Another Life Touched 2020-06-08 13:00:00-04:00
Depth of connection with an audience, even an audience of six, always wins out over sheer numbers.
A Quick Post-Renaissance VirtualCon Note 2020-06-07 08:00:00-04:00
The panels for Renaissance VirtualCon went very nicely. I'll be posting video playback links for them as soon as I have them on hand, in case you couldn't make it.
Catch Me In Person! Sort Of 2020-06-03 13:00:00-04:00
I'm going to be appearing as a panelist on two panels at the Renaissance Press Virtual Conference. Register now, slots are going fast!
The New Toy 2020-06-02 08:00:00-04:00
A new notebook computer enters my hands, and once again I'm boggled by progress.
The Enormity Of The World's Grief 2020-06-01 17:00:00-04:00
"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief." Easier said than done.
Fearful Asymmetry 2020-05-30 13:00:00-04:00
If I could sum up the problem of modern politics in only a few words, it would be this: the asymmetry of the motivations of the participants.
All The Money In The World 2020-05-26 08:00:00-04:00
Even if you had it, then what?
Folio v. 0.0.4 Has Arrived 2020-05-24 08:00:00-04:00
Welcome to the latest release of my wiki/org tool for writers and creative folks.
The Hardest Problem, Revisited 2020-05-22 13:00:00-04:00
Naming things. Especially stories.
Bubble Poppers And What-Iffers 2020-05-22 08:00:00-04:00
The more outside your bubble you have at your command, the more you have to answer any "what if?" in your work.
Why I Am (Not) A Filmmaker 2020-05-18 17:00:00-04:00
I might have been, though. And I still wish I was.
Squeezing The Tube 2020-05-15 17:00:00-04:00
It never helps to force a story to be about something.
The Zen In My Work And Vice Versa 2020-05-13 17:00:00-04:00
I never wanted to be a "Zen SF&F author". If I did receive that label, I think I'd be very unhappy about it.
The Impossible Factor 2020-05-09 08:00:00-04:00
Why SF&F have something to teach us even when it isn't "real".
DIY Or Die 2020-05-08 17:00:00-04:00
When is it OK to say, "Screw the world, I'm'a do me"? And when is it just being a self-indulgent twerp?
Leveled Up 2020-05-07 08:00:00-04:00
If people critique your themes or intentions, that's a sign you've leveled up.
The Nyah-Nyah World 2020-05-06 17:00:00-04:00
Welcome back to third grade.
Cheating, Not B.s.ing 2020-05-04 17:00:00-04:00
On the idea of: "Writers are liars and fabricators, but not b.s.'ers."
Exact Thinking In Demented Times, And Other Delights 2020-05-01 17:00:00-04:00
On Sir Popper's beautiful mind as an antidote for this terrible moment.
Kindly Educate Me About My Suckage 2020-04-30 08:00:00-04:00
More on how most writers are not good givers of writerly feedback. Few people are.
By Hook Or By Book Or By Crook 2020-04-29 17:00:00-04:00
On how my friend and fellow writer Matt is against the idea of the "hook" as a narrative mechanism.
Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be 2020-04-27 17:00:00-04:00
At some point in my life, I realized I didn't want to "go back" to anything, because there was no such thing as "going back".
Nothing Like That Now, Honest 2020-04-27 08:00:00-04:00
A note to myself: Be careful how you describe your story to others, because any one word can produce an image that doesn't match the reality.
One With Everything (Literary Edition) 2020-04-26 08:00:00-04:00
On the idea of writing a novel that encompasses the whole of life (and other delusions).
Where They All Went 2020-04-24 17:00:00-04:00
On losing touch with friends, and the difficulty of making new ones.
The Maltese Dafoe 2020-04-19 08:00:00-04:00
Fantasy casting for a film that never was.
Chewing Through My Bit 2020-04-17 08:00:00-04:00
I want to get Fall Of The Hammer finished and put to bed so I can get on with the next big thing.
Cold World Blues 2020-04-11 17:00:00-04:00
"The universe doesn't care about our feelings" isn't an excuse to be mean. No condition of life is an excuse.
A New Definitive 2020-04-11 08:00:00-04:00
We change all the time, and with every change comes a new kind of definitive.
The Me Agenda 2020-04-09 08:00:00-04:00
I'm not on anyone's schedule but my own, although it's sometimes hard to remember that.
Not Coming To A Book Near Me 2020-04-04 17:00:00-04:00
Why I wasn't going to do post-apoc, or apoc-in-general, stories -- yes, even long before COVID-19 came along.
Of The Here And Now, Or The Anywhere And Always 2020-04-03 17:00:00-04:00
I've long been wary of using fiction as a system of polemic, not because I don't care about the world we live in but because such things typically make for bad fiction
Still Waiting For Blu, 2020 Edition 2020-04-01 08:00:00-04:00
Apropos of nothing. A rundown of some favorite movies of mine that have yet to enjoy a physical HD reissue.
Escapism In Bad Times 2020-03-31 17:00:00-04:00
The point isn't to run away from what's around you, but to see something new despite it.
As If 2020-03-28 17:00:00-04:00
"If infinity is too big for you, live in the day."
Some Sense Of Stability 2020-03-26 13:00:00-04:00
When all this madness first really lit up, I made a promise to myself: I wasn't going to post anything here that was simply an echo of anything you could find anywhere else.
Recommended Reading In Difficult Times, Pt. 1 / ? 2020-03-23 13:00:00-04:00
Since many of you are stuck indoors right now and going a little stir crazy, I have some nonfiction reading suggestions that shed light on our moment from different directions.
Everyone Knows Utopia Is Nowhere 2020-03-21 17:00:00-04:00
On those who believe in incremental solutions -- progressive and conservative alike -- and those who believe in burning the whole house down and starting over.
Some Work-From-Home Tips From A Guy Who's Been There 2020-03-19 13:00:00-04:00
Okay, maybe I do have a few pointers that might be useful.
From The Bunker 2020-03-18 13:00:00-04:00
Like most of you, I'm "sheltering in place" -- which is actually not all that different from what I already do. The difference is that now I don't have a choice.
Hello From The Other Side, Pt. 3 2020-03-16 08:00:00-04:00
A third letter to a dead friend.
Things And Stuff, 2020-03-07 Edition 2020-03-07 17:00:00-05:00
Just a quick note about what's new in Chez Genji (writing, programming projects, etc.)
Do As You Say, Pt. 2 2020-03-03 13:00:00-05:00
So why don't I in fact like endpaper maps and genealogies and all the rest?
Do As You Say, Not As I Say 2020-03-03 08:00:00-05:00
Why I try not to write any story that needs a map in the endpapers or a genealogy.
Not The Fastest Horse, Just The Friendliest 2020-03-02 08:00:00-05:00
Using Python to build, well, everything.
My Folio Is Open At Last 2020-02-29 21:00:00-05:00
My personal wiki project's Github repo is now live!
Hello From The Other Side, Pt. 2 2020-02-28 08:00:00-05:00
Another letter to a long-dead friend.
What Might Dance Better 2020-02-26 08:00:00-05:00
"Since all art finally affirms something, if only its own value, some attitudes thus dance better than others."
Wiki Work(i) 2020-02-25 13:00:00-05:00
Progress report on my personal wiki software; organization for creatives and everyone else too.
My Greebled World 2020-02-24 17:00:00-05:00
On that feeling you get that the modern world is just too damn complicated.
The Burden Of Being Enthusiastic 2020-02-24 08:00:00-05:00
I'm way behind on everything these days, and the biggest reason for that is there's just so much more of everything. But it's no crime to miss out, is it?
Xtaloid: My New Game 2020-02-20 13:00:00-05:00
I guess this means I can add "game developer" to the rack of hats I wear?
Former And Continuing Student Of High Weirdness Confesses All! 2020-02-13 08:00:00-05:00
The true weirdoes, god love them, can't help themselves. I wasn't one of those folks, and I knew it.
Power Tools 2020-02-10 08:00:00-05:00
On Scrivener, Granthika, TiddlyWiki, and now my project for helping writers organize their work.
When Weighing In Got Outweighed 2020-02-04 17:00:00-05:00
Why I no longer write reviews of stuff for my own site.
Big Z, Little Z 2020-02-02 13:00:00-05:00
Why I don't mention Zen much in "mixed company".
Readiness And Other Lies 2020-02-02 08:00:00-05:00
It's not about being ready; it's about being willing to fail.
May Your Playlists Never Run Dry 2020-02-01 08:00:00-05:00
Most every story I've written has a soundtrack.
Of Dark Days 2020-01-31 17:00:00-05:00
None of this happened overnight. Neither will overcoming it.
Possibility Paralysis 2020-01-30 08:00:00-05:00
What do you do when you want to do everything?
The Builders And The Finders 2020-01-24 17:00:00-05:00
At first people think creating things is more like discovery than construction.
From Inside Out, Pt. 3,276 2020-01-22 08:00:00-05:00
Spiritual advice don't mean a thing if it don't come from within.
The First One Is Meant To Be Thrown Away 2020-01-21 08:00:00-05:00
Each work is a bridge to the next one.
What It All Means 2020-01-20 08:00:00-05:00
Zen's influence on my work.
The Pleasures Of Eating Your Own Dog Food 2020-01-19 08:00:00-05:00
No, this isn't about pets; it's about making the tools I use for my creative work.
The New Needs Friends 2020-01-13 17:00:00-05:00
The new needs friends, not evangelists or apologists.
A Time Now Gone 2020-01-11 10:00:00-05:00
On letting an old domain name roll away.
You May Begin To Feel Overload 2020-01-07 08:00:00-05:00
On art as the alleged antidote to life -- although life is no illness, is it?
One Year Later... 2020-01-06 08:00:00-05:00
Kicking off 2020.
