Modifiers - Description's Faithless Bastards

Sam's wagon was to the far rear of the procession.
Joe has incurred our deepest wrath.
Near silence reigned.
Many hundreds of years.

Remove the italicized words. Sound better?

Make a strong statement and stick to it, my fellow writers. Don't qualify it unless you have to, that's my advice. You'll only weaken yourself...or should I say, you'll weaken yourself severely, and your efforts will be very laughable.

Got my first royalty check today! Woo-hoo!

Yep, it's two slices of pizza tonight for me!

Who Loves Ya, Babe?

We practiced with these

Because I want nothing but the best, most accurate prose for you, my faithful readers, I took a sword fighting class on Tuesday. Broadsword, specifically (although we practiced with katanas). I learned about true edge (the one opposite your supporting thumb) about upper and lower lines, and about not going to the hospital. Cool!

There's something deeply satisfying about holding a weapon - and I say this is a committed gun-control proponent. Also the instructor was really cute - she had this Callie Thorne thing going on. But the next day, my ankles - hoo, boy! Yikes. That's why middle-aged men are generals, not swordsmen.

What I do for my fans.

By the way-

-Did Orwell really write in a suit, tie, and cigarette?
Times have changed.

Have You Met...George?

George Orwell, that is. Yeah, yeah - Animal Farm, 1984, I know.

But many people don't realize that Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair, his real name) was an even better essayist and journalist than he was a creator of fiction. He had the ability - born of native talent and long, careful effort - to convey the most complex and nuanced ideas in simple, powerful language.

You want to improve your writing? You want to wring all the mush, stale clichés and tired description out of your prose? Then read Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. Go ahead. Do it now - you can thank me later.

I'm interviewed-

-right here.

Check it out. It's a nice blog by a fellow Musa writer.

Fantasy Manifesto Number One

I'm so sick of writers whose highest aspiration is to be the next friggin' Robert Jordan. Here's the deal:

1. There are three, and only three, fantasies in which the presence of maps in the book does not presage pre-chewed suckitude: Oz, LOTR and Earthsea.

2. Conlangs are a parlor game for linguists, not a substitute for good writing.

3. Just because they're orcs, doesn't mean it's okay to kill them out of hand. Hath not an orc eyes? Hath not an orc hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food (mostly), hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a human is? If you prick them, do they not bleed? If you tickle them, do they not laugh? If you poison them, do they not die? And if you wrong them, do they not revenge?

Friggin' racists.

"It's Easy," I Said...

"...whenever the story starts to drag, just torture your hero."

I was having lunch with a ghostwriter friend of mine, chatting a little about TWS Book 2, Hero's Army. (Which you should totally buy as soon as it's ready. In fact, why wait? Pre-order it now! I promise, in Book Two Henry **SPOILER ALERT**  actually makes it to Constantinople! It just makes things worse, of course.)

Anyway, she asked me how HA was going, and that's when I made my semi-fatuous little genre writer comment.

But as soon as I said it, I knew it wasn't true.

Art Takes Times Square - TODAY!

One of my best friends, Lon Casler Bixby - aka Neoichi - is one of the featured photographers on the Art Takes Times Square billboard event TONIGHT.

If you're in New York today - June 18, 2012, from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM - head on over to Times Square and look at the billboards as they display art and photography from around the world.

Good going, Lon.

Classic F/SF Ideas: Exoskeleton Suits

It's armor...that makes you stronger! Super-cool, neh?

But before Halo, anime and manga, there were these folks:

The Forever War, Robert Haldeman
Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
Iron Man, comic, Stan Lee & Larry Leiber

Although Heinlein's novel came first (he has so many firsts!) and has one of the most exciting descriptions of future warfare ever in the first chapter, Haldeman's novel is more realistic, grimmer, and in general (I think) a better effort. As a side note - Heinlein served five years active duty in the Navy, but tuberculosis invalided him out in 1934. Haldeman was a draftee who served as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was wounded. You can see their backgrounds in the books: Heinlein, the man who wanted to serve, pre WW2, but ultimately didn't experience combat; and Haldeman, the man who didn't want to be there in Vietnam but did experience combat, whether he wanted to or not.