Blake Charlton's Blog, page 10
February 26, 2010
News Post: Prepare Your Speakers for The Awesome
US publication is upon us! Fortunately the mayhem over here is of the benign, amusing-to-people-who-aren't-you flavor. The present champion of entropy in Blake's apartment is an exciting audio project. One of my best friends from high school, Mark D. Hines, has become a professional stage actor. We met so long ago, I had hair. Those were frightening times, filled with these strange, grotesque rings of hair that surrounded the bathtub drain. *Shudder.* I'm serious, man. How do you hirsute...
February 24, 2010
Spellwright's Lost Invocation
The inspiration for Spellwright came to me in a rush; it began with a moment of sharp pain but then evolved into a flight of ideas that felt…almost incandescent. As origin stories go, it's not a bad one; you can find it here. I'll remember the day it happened forever. I was in New Haven, in late autumn. The afternoon was dark and overcast, the sun shining through a far off break in the clouds to give the impression that the whole city was contained in a giant room. The few remaining leaves...
Write about What You Fear
The following crosspost appears originally at Magical Words, a brilliant blog that focuses on the craft of writing and the business of writing for aspiring novelists. It's a wonderful resource that deserves your perusal.
Imagine that someone asks you to have a long, serious discussion about writing. Imagine you care about this person. Imagine you are not feeling snide. Imagine you are not (very) drunk.
When you respond, you will invariably say "Show, don't tell," and "Write about what you...
February 23, 2010
SPELLWRIGHT Book Tour!
Dearly Beloved You People: Should you want to be dazzled by the light glinting off my head, hear me read, see me get nervous about signing books while talking at the same time, here's the present calendar for the Spellwright DIY Tour. (For updates you can check back here or watch my blog.)
March 14th, 2:00pm: Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA (event page)
February 21, 2010
How Playing Dungeons & Dragons™ Will Prepare YOU for Medical School
Lately I've fielding questions from earnest, interested parents about helping their children to one day reach medical school. I usually have to resist the urge to ask a snarky question about why the parents want to punish their children. But I do resist, mostly because deep-down, I have loved medical school (or all that I've seen of it so far).
Anyway, for the questioning parents, I trot out some advice about bringing science and social awareness into conversations at home, praising the child ...
February 19, 2010
News Post: The Son-of-Two-Psychoanalysts
A quick fact about me: both my mother and my father are psychiatrists. (Yes. The answer to whatever question you're wondering right now is 'yes.' Trust me.) More interesting still, they're both psychoanalysts.
More than anyone, Mom and Dad deserve the credit for any success I've had overcoming my disability. Their devotion, kindness, and patience were truly amazing. I am keenly aware of how privileged I was to be born to parents with the both the desire and financial means to help me overcome ...
February 17, 2010
If Snark & Snide had a Love Child, It Would be This Interview
(The following cross post appears originally on the web page of my very dear friend–the best selling, award winning, incorrigibly witty, and infinitely teasable Gail Carriger.)
Today, Gentle Reader, I am pleased to present a not-so-normal interview with my regular writing-buddy, Mr. Blake Charlton. Someday I will tell you all the story of how we met, what a lost and pathetic big-eyed innocent he was when Phran and I rescued him from the yearning maw of his first science fiction convention...
February 15, 2010
How a Problem with Tolkien's Modern English Helped Inspire Spellwright
(The following post was written for http://voyageronline.wordpress.com/ and will be posted there around when the book hits Australian shores. When asked to write a post for Australian fantasy readers, I struck upon this topic by considering possible similarities in linguistic experiences between someone who'd grown up in Sydney (though my knowledge of Australia is admittedly limited) and someone who'd grown up in San Francisco—both young, Pacific cities dominated by English but still alive...
February 14, 2010
The Happiest (possible) V-Day to You!
I don't know about you, but when I think about Romantic Love I think about one or several early Christian martyrs with little or nebulous historical record but surrounded by semi-morbid stories of an unjust religious imprisonment, passionate letters handwritten while incarcerated to an undetermined someone else, followed by a public beheading. Oh and cutout-paper hearts, chocolate, doves, and frilly underwear. They all run together so naturally. Especially the doves and the frilly underwear. ...
February 11, 2010
What do Medicine and High School have in Common?
The other day my internal medicine research team met up at the project lead's office and we walked over to a conference (eight pairs dress clogs go clomp clomp clomp) that was then occupied by a research team. They were running over the time they had signed up for. We stood outside, waiting for them to finish, perhaps talking louder to let them know we were here. Sure enough, realizing there time was up, the other team collected themselves around the door and …opened it…and then…we saw…they w...
