Jennifer M. Baldwin's Blog, page 2

American Fantasy in a Box of Rain

Ross Douthat had an op-ed a few months ago where he posited that America needed its own quintessentially American fantasy novel/series, and while I immediately objected to the headline’s premise that we’ve never had one (ever heard of Oz, my dude? Or the John the Balladeer stories?), I understood that Douthat was arguing for a […]

A New Spirit

It feels like spring here in Michigan. For two days, at least, we’ve had a thaw: snow melting into great running rivulets along the sides of roads, puddles everywhere, blue sky and birdsong. I’ve also started a new notebook, having finished my previous one this past weekend. Upon starting a new notebook (spiral-bound, flimsy cardboard […]

Experiments in Applying Butt to Chair

Wrote about 740 words in an hour. Handwritten. (Sometimes I handwrite, sometimes I type. Switching back and forth helps jog my Creative Voice. I let it decide which to do at any given moment.) Not my highest word count in an hour, but I did have a brief stretch in the story where I haggled […]

Knowing Stuff

I’m trying hard not to frame this is a “back in my day” vs. “kids these days” thing. I don’t know that people back in the day were more culturally literate than they are today. I suspect not. And cultural literacy changes as culture changes, so the references to things that meant a lot to […]

Let’s All Read Tanith Lee

If you had asked me about Neil Gaiman before recent horrific news broke about his abusiveness, I would have said I was a fan. Not a huge fan, but a fan. I liked The Sandman comics, liked Neverwhere, liked the movie adaptation of Stardust, liked some of his children’s books, liked the movie adaptation of […]

I Like Essays!

“Listen, we all hate reading essays. Nobody likes reading essays. Nobody likes writing essays either.” This was spoken by an English teacher at a conference I attended earlier this week. I knew what he meant. I think we all knew what he meant. I’m not trying to be obtuse by ignoring the context of his […]

Typing Offline

I really want to get a classroom set of word processing machines for my students to type up their drafts after working in their notebooks. Many of them struggle with writing legibly, and they like the comfort of the spell-check function (I know I do too!). But I don’t want them accessing the internet, partly […]

“The Writer’s Journey” by Vogler

I got this book from the library about a month ago. It’s due back soon, so I thought I’d make an effort to finish it before then. I was supposed to read Vogler’s book for a screenwriting class way back in my freshman year of undergrad, but I never actually did. I was very much […]

“Pick a notebook, any notebook”

“Pick a notebook, any notebook. If you compose well in it, you will become attached. Choose a pen that feels right. It could be a beautiful, expensive fountain pen, or any old BIC. Whatever feels good in your hand. Okay — this is your notebook, and this is your pen. Balance the notebook on your […]

Input Update 1/7/2025

Reading: The Book That Broke the World Also reading: Everything Sad Is Untrue Also, also reading: The Mythmakers Listening to: My Analog Journal Youtube channel Playing: Dolmenwood RPG (solo)