Daniel Morris's Blog, page 8

Random Fiction: Irish Red

"Hey Irish Red, over here!"
I'm ignoring you, thought Irish Red, son of Big Red.
Irish Red! The bird! The bird is like, right next to you.
Not listening not listening not listening not listening.
"Irish Red! Irish Red!"
I am so outta here.

The Nevada Test Site Experience

In the name of book research I recently made a trip to the Nevada Test Site, which, from 1951 to 1992 is where the US government tested some 928 nuclear devices (source: Wikipedia). I want to say it was a big and empty place, and it was, although maybe not as big and empty as I was expecting. I think I pictured something endlessly flat, whereas in reality you're surrounded by mountains, and one of the main testing locations, Frenchmen's Flat, seems almost crowded when you see all of the remainin

Time Travel: Science vs. The Movies

I've been working recently on a new novel about time travel and happened to stumble across this helpful article on Slate where a physicist compares what science says about time travel with how it's depicted in film (which is basically where I've gained all of my previous time travel knowledge, thank you Back to the Future).

Its interesting that he gives a thumb down to the many worlds theory, whereas I've heard other physicists do the opposite. Guess its all relative.

FYI, the many worlds theo

Six-Minute Story: #3

Quick, off the cuff story sketches written in six minutes and based on a random photograph.

Beneath the mesh the man walks south. South through the mouth of mesh the mess pressed upon the glass, to touch or taste or press your tongue, tongue pressed to the cracks, squeezed through, a bud per hole, to taste the air, its flavored, like water, flavored with breezes that go around the world, taking air from here and there and everywhere, even in your underwear, breezes in your silverware.

The blurry

Six-Minute Story

Quick, off the cuff story sketches written in six minutes and based on a random photograph.

Beneath the mesh the man walks south. South through the mouth of mesh the mess pressed upon the glass, to touch or taste or press your tongue, tongue pressed to the cracks, squeezed through, a bud per hole, to taste the air, its flavored, like water, flavored with breezes that go around the world, taking air from here and there and everywhere, even in your underwear, breezes in your silverware.

The blurry

Upadate: The Canal: Now In All E-Book Formats

Once again: cue those trumpets...

The Canal is now available in almost any electronic format imaginable, and unimaginable, over at Smashwords for the nice price of $1.99.

So go download a copy and give print the finger. ...Just kidding.

The Canal: The Kindle Version

Behold. You can now read The Canal on the Kindle for $1.99.

And if you don't own a Kindle, an iPhone version of The Canal is also in the works (although technically the Kindle version is readable on iPhones via the Kindle app, if you're that impatient).

Of course, the classic paper version is still available too, for $5.99.

That is all. Cue trumpets.

-The Canal on the Kindle [Amazon:]

Canal News: A Brief History Of The Gowanus

Updates on the Gowanus Canal, the real life inspiration behind The Canal.

New York Magazine recently posted a quick bio on the Gowanus. A few highlights:

-In 1910, a local businessman was already describing the canal's water as "almost solid" with sewage.

-Last dredged in 1975, up to twenty feet of sediment has piled up, particularly near the shorelines. The Army Corps of Engineers' Mark Lulka says it is composed of sand, gravel, mud, and a substance he describes as "black mayonnaise."

-The...

Gowanus News: A Brief History Of The Canal

Updates on the Gowanus Canal, the real life inspiration behind The Canal.

New York Magazine recently posted a quick bio on the Gowanus. A few highlights:

In 1910, a local businessman was already describing the canal's water as "almost solid" with sewage.

Last dredged in 1975, up to twenty feet of sediment has piled up, particularly near the shorelines. The Army Corps of Engineers' Mark Lulka says it is composed of sand, gravel, mud, and a substance he describes as "black mayonnaise."

The industrial

Random Fiction: Ship Master

Ah, Ship Master. As a writer, this is the kind of book that, well, once you've been exposed to it, it's impossible to escape the influence of its style and technique:

The sun was high and yellow and beat down on them. It was hot.

I'm not going to lie -- I have that sentence highlighted.

Ship Master involves the adventures of treasure hunter Cliff Stafford. There's a pirate legend, a ghost, and plenty of, uh, interpersonal relations. I think I paid $5.00 for this at a used book store about 7 years