This author’s note originally appeared in the October 3rd edition of my author newsletter. To subscribe to my newsletter, click here. When Mrs. Vasicek and I got married, we decided that there would be no smart devices or screens in our house beyond the master bedroom. Our reasoning had mostly to do with personal health… Continue reading 2019-10-03 Newsletter Author’s Note
Tag: dystopian
Trope Tuesday: Sinister Surveillance
Someone is watching you. Their eyes are everywhere. Everything you do, everything you say … it’s all being recorded in a giant database. But don’t worry–you can trust the ones watching you. They have your best interests at heart. They’re only after the bad guys. You won’t even know that they’re there. Sinister Surveillance is… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Sinister Surveillance
Trope Tuesday: After the End
It’s the end of the world as we know it … so why do we feel fine? On the apocalyptic scale of world destruction, when the thing that wipes out civilization doesn’t quite kill everyone, we’re left with an After the End type setting. Depending on where the writers fall on the sliding scale of… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: After the End
Y is for Yesteryear
They say that the golden age of science fiction is about twelve years old. That’s definitely true for me. My first exposure to the genre was Star Wars: A New Hope. I saw it when I was seven, right around the height of my dinosaur phase. Everything about the movie completely blew me away, from… Continue reading Y is for Yesteryear
Trope Tuesday: The Call to Adventure
One of the first (and most important) stages of the hero’s journey is the call to adventure. It happens when the hero first confronts something outside the experience of his ordinary world that beacons him to leave it. It overlaps closely with the inciting incident, and marks the point at which the hero’s journey begins. However,… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: The Call to Adventure
The gulf between the generations
I just watched a fascinating interview with a 1960s White House intern who claimed to have an eighteen month affair with President John F. Kennedy. But the most interesting thing wasn’t the affair itself, but the way the President’s staff, the “fourth branch” of government (AKA the media), and the entire general public of 1960s… Continue reading The gulf between the generations
Paradise Seekers by Nathan Major
Haven–a land where no one knows who they are, where they’re from, or how they got there. A place where everyone has a different recurring dream every night, which gradually grows in intensity until it drives them to madness. A place where everyone has only a short amount of time to find Paradise, before they… Continue reading Paradise Seekers by Nathan Major
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
This book review is going to be a bit unconventional, so please bear with me. Normally, I only review books on my blog if I feel I can recommend them. They might not be perfect, but overall, the praise outweighs the criticism. However, for me personally, The Hunger Games was a huge disappointment. I’m not… Continue reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Story Notebook #4
Alright, it’s been too long since the last time I posted any story ideas here on this blog, so I thought I’d go back to my old notebooks and post a few of them here. Currently, we’re on notebook #4, which basically covers the second half of 2009. And so, without further ado…here goes! A… Continue reading Story Notebook #4
Retired notebook: part 1
Like most writers, I keep a notebook with me at all times. I use it a lot for scrap paper, but I also jot down all the weird story ideas that come to me, usually while I’m doing something completely unrelated to the idea. A while ago, my old notebook got too ratty to keep… Continue reading Retired notebook: part 1