Every time this blog gets one of these spontaneous, friendly “awards,” I’m surprised and delighted. It still makes me happy not only that people read Written Words, but like it enough to give it some public recognition. Thank you, Rosalind Burgess and Patricia Obermeier Neurman of the Roz and Patty Write blog for nominating Written […]
The boundaries between the different types of publishing just keep getting more blurred and more porous. Amazon and Hachette’s dispute has reached a new plateau, with the respective CEOs writing mass emails to explain their respective positions over book discounting. Amazon is also in a dispute with Time Warner, and has blocked pre-orders of […]
Highway speed limits were the topic on the call-in radio show a few days ago in my home town. The show asked, since people routinely drive 20 kilometres an hour (at about 75 miles an hour for American readers) above the posted speed limit, maybe the province should just raise the posted speed limit to […]
Photo by jsorbieus via Flickr Creative Commons. Last month, I wrote in this blog that I did not consider my books to be self-published because I did not do the work myself. In fact, a number of talented, creative and generous people made critical contributions to the development of all my books, as […]
Wikimedia Commons I don’t appear to have an “off” switch. I do have a “distract” switch, a “sex” switch and others, but somehow, I don’t seem to be able to stop writing.Right now, I’m sitting on the back patio of a fancy restaurant in Ottawa, waiting for my wife to arrive. I’ve ridden my bicycle […]
Creative Commons Occasionally, you have to hand it to the dark side. For years, over a decade, in fact, I’ve known and acknowledged that Microsoft Word is the best word processor. I did not want to acknowledge that, though. I wanted there to be something better than the market leader and de facto standard. But […]
Gray Retribution, by Alan McDermott No one writes action like McDermott. From the first sentence, Gray Retribution delivers that combination of action and detail that few writers can manage. Not only does McDermott put us eye-to-eye with his characters, he gets the little things right, like the types of weapons and the way they all […]