Labour Day is fast approaching, and with it the crisp weather and colourful foliage of fall. If, like me, you work in academia or education, the more intense part of your job is on the horizon (or already here, depending on whether, like me, you left all your planning for the end…
I’ve learned a lot about creative work from video games: puzzle-making, entertainment design principles, and plot construction. But video games have also taught me about other important things in my life. Namely, about myself. And what have I learned? Well…
Writing a story is like old-school Tetris. And we’re talking Game Boy Tetris here. Grey pixels on greeny-yellow background. No block “ghosts” to show you where your drop will end up. None of this T-spin-to-win nonsense. Back in my day, the tetronimos were heavy and froze the instant they even looked…
Gamification is a big idea these days. People in a variety of fields realize that games — often video games in particular — have a lot to teach us, whether it’s how to deal with a deranged computer forcing us through ever-more-dangerous tests or that bards can be spoony. When…
(But first… happy birthday, Grace! Yaaaaaay!) Almost every how-to writing book you can find advises would-be writers to read extensively. This is sound advice. Reading a lot of what you want to write helps you to understand it viscerally the same way doing lots of math problems is a different…
Books YA/MG fiction The Opposite of Hallelujah (***** – loved) Adult fiction Zoo City (***** – loved) Beauty and the Werewolf (*** – enjoyed) Broken Harbour (***** – loved) Adult non-fiction Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (*** – enjoyed) Movies Wreck-It Ralph (**** – liked) In…
Recently, I’ve been struck by the sudden understanding that this is the only chance at life I get. I don’t mean that I was somehow unaware of the reality of my existence, or that I went from believing in life after death to skepticism. I always knew that I wouldn’t…
This is in response to my friend Steve’s post over at his blog, to which he has kindly allowed me to reply in the interests of opening friendly discussion (and also in the interests of giving both of us fodder for future blog entries. Win-win!). I actually meant to write…
Happy birthday, Deb A.! This is really late, but I am/have been at the cottage with my awesome extended family, so I win anyhow. Ha ha ha!
But first, happy belated birthday, Juliana, and happy early birthday, Tory! And many more for both of you! Item one: when I was a kid, we sometimes had a badminton net strung up at our cottage.