2012 was a year of change for me. Not in the writing I did, but in my views as a writer. I didn’t realize it until looking back over the year. I wouldn’t go as far as saying everything I thought about writing changed this year, but in the change that happened I found myself […]
Archives for 2012
Check Your Head
As the end of the year closes, I find myself deleting a lot of people I once followed on social media sites. People claiming that it’s all about the message, but freaking out because people aren’t doing what they want online. I read something from a prominent blogger (Chris Brogan, who does seem like a […]
Doomsday Sunshine
The world didn’t end today. I almost hate writing something about the supposed end according to the Maya that was never real from the start. But I try seeing good even in ridiculous things. As goofy as it is giving credence to the belief that the world would end today, if you pretend it was […]
The Necessary Provisions
I recently wrote about focusing on what I really want to write vs. what has a better chance of selling. It hasn’t always been the easy choice, but it’s been the right choice and not without its rewards. I’ve made decisions some might question: “Why would you spend all that time on difficult novels when […]
The Death of Books
Books are dead; long live the e-reader! Nobody reads anymore, so why bother writing? By the time 2015 rolls around, publishing will be dead! Why in the world would anyone open a bookstore these days?! I’ve heard all this (and more) said about the industry. Being a realist, I know things aren’t the way they […]
Doing Your Own Thing
The first time I saw a Chris Ware comic strip was in the early 90s, in a comic book anthology called JAB (Adhesive Press). It was a series of strips about a little guy who looked like a potato. To this day, if I drag the comic book out, those strips still hold up. They’re […]
Email Newsletters the John Picacio Way
A confession: I’m terrible about building my email newsletter mailing list. The small handful of people who have signed up are loyal and cherished, but I have always felt strange about hitting people up to see if they’d like my occasional messages and information. It tends to be a seasonal thing instead of monthly, as […]
Are You Afraid to Write
I’m no stranger to being afraid. As a kid, Scooby Doo scared the crap out of me and my overactive imagination. Until I saw the mask pulled off the creepy guy running the ski lodge or whatever, it was like Schrödinger’s cat: anything could have been beneath that mask! Walking home at night in the […]
The Chain Smoker
It’s been a little while since I last updated. I meant for this entry to come along a day or two after the Better Writing Through Birdemic entry. The crew behind the RiffTraxx Live showing of Birdemic are some of the same people who were behind Mystery Science Theater 3000. Which brings us to The […]
Better Writing Through Birdemic
Last Thursday, I finally saw Birdemic (the RiffTrax Live event). It was a blast; I was hoarse for a couple days from laughing so hard. Somewhere into the opening credits, which drag on and on and on and on, it hit me: people can learn some writing lessons from watching this movie mocked by the […]
What is Genre
Genre’s a funny thing. There are definitely genre books out there. If I pick up anything from Harlequin, I know what I’m getting (although, they do publish more than just romance). If I swing by Subterranean Press, it’s science fiction, fantasy, or horror. But even there, in those genres, things are not always so easily […]
For Your Perusal Bookstore
Last month, I posted video tours of a bookcase in my living room and another in my office. Because I try keeping the videos I make 3-5 minutes in length, I didn’t have time to focus on the pile in the bookcase in my office. (It’s the image over there to the right.) I have […]
Time to Get Back to Work
John Picacio won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist this year. It was his eighth consecutive year nominated and his first win. On his blog, John wrote about a whirlwind weekend that had him winning a Chesley Award while at DragonCon one day, and the Hugo at Worldcon in Chicago the next. It was […]
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