point of view

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POINT OF VIEW: Technobabble

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technobabble mumbo jumbo - Yay Images

One of my friends/fans, Joel Arellano, asked me to talk a bit about technobabble in sci-fi, so here we go. Oxford defines technobablye as “incomprehensible technical jargon.” Basically, in sci-fi, it’s when a writer throws in a bunch of high-tech words to make their story sound all sciencey and shit: Jelyk pulled the thromb-whistle to spin the arkensphere up to speed. Somewhere in the guts of the Hawkthorne, the mighty raction engines powered up, ready to thrust the massive ship into hyperspace. See? I really know my technobabble. I bet you don’t even know what an arkensphere is, but now … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Wish I’d Known

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Joel Arellano

Last week, I asked The Universe for ideas for my future columns, and The Universe, personified in one Joel Arellano on Facebook, replied: “A list of 10 Things you wish you had known before publishing your works.” I’ve been doing this writing thing semi professionally since 2014, so I should be able to come up with ten things to tell my newbie writing self, right? Here it goes: Rejections Happen. Don’t Let Them Stop You. If you give up being a writer because of rejections, you’ve lost the game. You may be an awful writer, or you might be the … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Help Me! I’m Falling!

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man falling - deposit photos

Each Monday, I wake up and sit down to pen this Point of View column, and the words pour out of me, a writer in his prime, pontificating on the art of the written word, my life, and the world around me. Usually I scribble out a pithy, insightful screed that makes my readers smile and nod, or sometimes grimace and cry. Today, I got nuthin.’ On the rare occasion when such a tragedy occurs, I turn to you, dear reader, to see what you’d like me to talk about. So please tell me in the comments below what you’d … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Stanislavski-ing My Characters

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man in mirror

Constantin Stanislavski came uo with a theory of acting that I’m loosely going to describe as “become the character” – a method of connecting with the personality of the person you’re playing, and learning how to think and feel like they did. It’s also known as Method Acting, and taken to its extreme, it can mean basically living as the person you are portraying. As folks who regularly read this column know (thanks to both of you!), I’m working on going deep with my characterization. Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about method actors and how they get into the heads … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Breaking Out of the Present

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ipad - pixabay

Writing the future is hard. We’re embedded in the present. We have all this amazing tech now, but most of it will be gone in fifty years, evolved into something new. Who could have predicted some of these things fifty years ago? Sci-fi writers, that’s who. It’s what we do, but it’s a lot harder than it looks. Think about the world fifty years ago. There were no personal computers, no iphones, no facebook, no floppy disks, no emails, no post-it notes, no tik tok, and no space shuttles. The web wasn’t created until the 90’s, and text messaging started … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Hope

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hope - pixabay

Covid19 is ravaging the country. Our main business is suffering, especially the travel-related part. Our country has just gone through an attempted insurrection, and more Trump pardons are on the horizon. I should be devastated. And yet… I feel a strange peace. A weird feeling that I’m not entirely comfortable with, as it goes against the rough grain of all that I have experienced these past four years. Hope. It’s been nine days since I last heard the phrase “President Trump tweeted.” I don’t think I’d realized until now what an ongoing psychic abuse I felt every time someone uttered … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Building Compelling, Complex and Charismatic Characters

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character - deposit photos

Every writer has an achilles heel. Mine is characterization. I’m fantastic at world building – I can create compelling settings that will wrap you up and transport you away from whatever mudane place you find yourself in. I’m also great at plot. Not bragging here. It’s something that just comes naturally to me. The one thing I consistently get dinged for is my characterization, or lack thereof. I’ve worked on it for years, and I’m way better than I used to be, bit alas, there’s still room for improvement. Agents and publishers have a word for this – they call … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: 2021 Is Here – What Now?

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2021

Last week, I talked about some writing successes during an otherwise bleak 2020. Today I’m turning my gaze ahead and pulling out my crystal ball (and my planner). Here are some things I am hoping for and preparing for in 2021. In January (1/10), I am rereleasing Between the Lines, my River City Chronicles prequel. I have re-edited and extended it a bit, and it will be available in print as a novella for the first time. It also has a spiffy new cover, which I am previewing in this week’s newsletter! In February (2/10), I’ll be rereleasing a short … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: What Went Right in 2020

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2020 - pixabay

Make no mistake. 2020 was a dumpster fire inside a clusterfuck inside a horror film. And yet, some good things still happened for the LGBTQ community. Switzerland and Northern Ireland finally got marriage equality. Trans, gender fluid and non-binary representation in entertainment got a big boost. More jurisdictions banned conversion therapy. And the Commander in Thief got kicked to the curb. Wikipedia has a great list of many of 2020’s LGBTQ advances here. Personally, a lot happened for me and my writing career too. 🙂 In January, I started submitting Dropnauts, the follow-up to the Liminal Sky: Ariadne Cycle trilogy … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Breaking Through the Wall

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breaking the wall

Sometimes we just get stuck. Writers gotta write, but life has a habit of getting in the way. Maybe a particular project has you stumped. Or maybe it’s a general sense of malaise or a bad review, or a book that didn’t sell like you hoped it would. As I write this, we’re at the tail end of 2020, a year that offered enough pain and distraction to stop the most dedicated of writers dead in their tracks. Whatever it is, you need a way to break through the wall. If you’ve never read it, I’d like to recommend a … Read more