First of all, there are no rules.

No, seriously, this is fiction we're talking about here, so the rules are what you make them.  At this point, pretty much every "rule" you can think of when it comes to writing fiction has been broken.  For instance, when I was more dedicated to the craft (ie. fresh out of high school), I read a book titled Mister Johnson, which was written in the present tense.  Generally, that's a "no no" in fiction,...
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Last year, I shared these tools to help people participating in NaNoWriMo and, since it's that time of year again, I'm going to share them again.

Maybe one year, I'll be able to get myself together again and give this a try.  Maybe this coming year, I'll have all my regular posts queued up and ready to go and have a story idea and all the research done and have been practicing my writing and...  Well, maybe.  In any case, until...
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I won't be participating in NaNoWriMo this year, but if you are, here are some tools that might help those of you who are.

First of all, for those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, which is, according to their website, "... a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30."  If you've never heard of it, and would like...
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I don't have much for you this week.

Seriously, it's been a long, tiring week and I'm kind of burned out, but I have to work part of the weekend, too, so I'm afraid this week isn't great.   Basically, I've just got one thing, but at least it's free.
If you like to read, especially magazines, and don't mind reading online or via an app, then check out Issuu, the free digital publishing platform.  Yes, it's basically a news stand in digital...
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Or, at least, all robocallers.

So, lately, I've been digging through my files, finding links I saved ages ago to share with you, my few loyal blog readers, and I'm the first to admit that it's been a mixed bag.  Some have been fun.  Some have been lame.  But, this one actually solves a problem for you.

Do you get automated calls?  Maybe you signed up for a catalog ages ago, or maybe you thought that timeshare in Miami was going to...
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Traditionally, I've tried to give you free stuff on Friday.
This week is no different.

But, I'll be honest, it's been a crazy week with budget planning and strategic planning for the next five years at work, so I haven't really prepared anything special.  And, that means I'll be digging into my collection of strange links for two totally random freebies for you to enjoy!

First, since I always fool around with designing websites, or at least talk about it a lot, I...
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I feel like I've been slacking lately, so this week, I've got a free game for you.

Well, at least it's a free alpha version of the game, which is still in development.
But, they do say that they plan on making it free when it's finally complete.  The game is called, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, Wings of Saint Nazaire.  It's a pretty retro space shooter inspired by X-Wing and Wing Commander.  You can see some animated...
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Marshall McLuhan said that, and it may be one of the few things I remember about him from my Marketing classes.And, I'll be honest, outside of it being a catchy phrase, I'm not entirely sure it applies to this post.  But, I suppose, in a way, it does.

Take a look around you and think about how you receive information.  While a "picture is worth a thousand words", the vast majority of the way we communicate information is via the written...
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I thought I'd get out of my rut and show you loyal readers something that has fascinated me for years.

Granted, I haven't had the real opportunity to actually participate in historical Western martial arts, but I have read quite a lot about it. In fact, back in the day, I used to subscribe to Hammerterz Verlag, which was the only semi-regular newsletter on the subject, published by the foremost expert on the art of historical Western combat of recent years,...
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It's a great time to be a blogger.
No, seriously!  For one thing, if you're an old guy like me, who's been blogging for ten or fifteen years, the golden time we all knew was coming has arrived; according to The Atlantic, Millennials are finally craving long-form reads.