Category: On Other People

Where I Talk About the Reader Survey: 2018 Edition

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Like I did last year, I did a reader survey for 2018, and because I lack originality, I’m sharing the responses again. It’s worth rehashing the same warning label: Self-reported results are troublesome, my sample size is small, and my unconscious bias flavors my results more than most people spice a good curry. Despite all that, let’s see what the people want, shall we? Feeding the Beast First on deck is what people want me to write next. Heavily implied within this is what people might pay for, and daddy needs to make rent. Lo! The responses are below, with a surprising twist: It’s not surprising people want more Ezeroc Wars. This is my most popular series by far, despite Night’s Champion getting more reviews (I dunno, are supernatural suspense fans more likely to leave a review?). The surprises come Read More …

The Same Standard Distribution of Asshats

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I realised today that not *everyone* is an asshole. Bear with me. This might take a while to break down. You know how people are getting depressed or anxious more in today’s world, right, this isn’t exactly news. There have been more meds proscribed for more conditions than ever before, and if you don’t know someone suffering from depression or anxiety you’re probably an insensitive jerk or living in the woods wearing nothing animal skins, and if it’s the latter you’re probably not reading this anyway. I’m wondering, you know, about why this is. People are talking about how it’s the way we live life, the pace of it, or the transitory nature, or the lack of creativity, which I think are all true. These things make sense – if you’re just sweating behind a desk for The Man, you’re Read More …

Interview: Lee Murray

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I like to read. I think it’s a natural condition for those of us in the human race — we like stories. My reading pile (more or less a pile of shame: so many promising books I haven’t got to yet) grew by one. I had a nibble on the sample, grabbed it, and finished it in less than a week (meteoric for me — and only possible because of a last burn to a 3am finish). That book was Into the Mist, a new release from Lee Murray. Not content with the substance of my review, I pestered Lee until she agreed to do an interview. I think she did this to shut me up, or maybe it was out of pity; she’s too polite to say. If you haven’t already, go grab that sample; it’s worth your time. Let’s do Read More …

Breathing Life

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I remember playing video games back in the day. Sure, there were good experiences, lots of shinies — for the time — and new experiences to be uncovered.  One of those experiences was — excitement! — computers began to have the horsepower for decent sound.  Digitised voices, and then movies, made their way into video games. This was not good. Well, it wasn’t universally good.  You’d maybe get the intern on deck, doing God’s work at a developer, voicing a key role.  Or someone’s uncle, or child, or whatever.  These were the voices that started to get into games, and not all of it was sex and candy, you know?  As games got bigger, and turned into more robust products, we started to see some pretty impressive talent come to voice the stories we love.  Nolan North, of course.  His brother Read More …

Angels and Automatons

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Imma plug something here for a bit. Angels and Automatons.  It’s a new steampunk anthology that’s going for a Kickstarter, run by a friend of mine (Stephen Minchin a.k.a. Steam Press).  It’ll have awesome authors in it, and there’s a bunch of options to get yourself in there at various dollar points.  Here: It might hit a little close to home with all the earthquakes and millennium storms we’re having here, but that just makes it more beautiful.  The lowest pledge is 6 Pacific Pesos, which is essentially free in any currency.  Click it.

The Beast Is Dead

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I’ve had a chance to cool down.  It didn’t help much. Last month, as you’re probably aware in some form, was NaNoWriMo.  This post is all about that; you’ll get to read me rant a bit, and just for a bit of balance I’ve co-opted some of my writing homies to give their views on NaNo. Where it all began: I thought, “Hey, this’ll be fun, I’ll just hop on in, crank out 50,000 words, and get a lot farther ahead in Upgrade.”  What actually happened? I wrote 50,000 words, but I now hate myself. Worse, I began to resent my writing.  This is not cool. Q U A L I T Y  Writing is all about the story.  The people in it, how it unfolds, and getting a reader interested in what you’re trying to tell.  The big problem Read More …

I’d Like To Introduce You To…

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…Cassie Hart.  No, it’s not short for anything, it’s just Cassie. I first “met” Cassie when I joined a new Guild Wars guild.  She was one other random in guild chat, but after I posted the sort of about-me page on our guild forums, she mentioned that she was also a member of SpecFic NZ.  We’ve traded a few emails over the last few months, and I became quite interested in some of the similarities in the way we work. Don’t get me wrong.  She doesn’t have werewolves or a high body count.  Cassie writes no stories about megacorporations, or the people who live in the cracks between them.  But her stories have twist and style, and when I read them I’m left with a, “Huh.  She actually did that.” When I wrote Night’s Favour, I wanted to write something a Read More …