Hugh Howey's Blog, page 109
October 15, 2011
Another Great Night at the Tin Roof!
Last night was a blast! The Tin Roof in West Ashley invited me down to celebrate the fourth Molly book (the last in the Bern Saga). I mixed it up a little bit this time. After my awesome sister introduced me, I played some of the funny promotional clips I put together way back when [...]
October 11, 2011
The Ultimatum Game on Wall Street
I met my wife almost ten years ago, back when she was completing her doctoral degree in psychology. We were both living in Florida. I was working on boats, she was going to classes, we were both ardent students of human behavior. Most of my learning came from books and observation. She had the same [...]
October 10, 2011
National "I-Don't-Know" Month
October is here! And with the gorgeous Fall colors of the Appalachian mountains comes a yearly tradition: The sudden indecision that precedes National Novel Writing Month. Shortened to NaNoWriMo, this is a glorious month to be a writer. It's the marathon we look forward to and somewhat dread for the other eleven months. The goal [...]
August 6, 2011
July 29, 2011
Questions from an 11-year-old Molly Fyde fan
I recently spent a few hours with a young Molly Fyde fan, chatting about the series, the characters, and the young man's love of boats and fishing. He also took the time to show me a small wooden model spaceship, on which he had written, "Parsona." And there was a small bearded dragon lizard in [...]
June 28, 2011
A Scientific Explanation
A few days ago, I offered for conflicted Christians a saner interpretation of biblical passages on homosexuality. Rather than argue from outside the religion and just demand change, I took a step inside and showed how rules against homosexuality can be more easily lumped in with biblical-era procreation and survival rules than with the rules [...]
June 25, 2011
A Saner Interpretation
Last night was a long time coming. After watching the setback of Prop 8 in California (the appeal is probably heading to the Supreme Court), the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York feels like another jittery step forward in the march of ethical progress. It feels like the issue of gay rights, a movement that began [...]
June 19, 2011
Bouncing Balls, a Rocking Horse, and Sentences that Begin with "Americans."
A decade ago, renowned linguist Steven Pinker wrote one of the most important popular science books of modern times. Entitled, THE BLANK SLATE, it outlined the all too common fallacy most humans operate under: namely that they are born as empty canvases on which experience and environment sketch their fates. The Nature vs. Nurture argument, [...]
June 9, 2011
Therapy
I wake up in darkness, which is like not waking up at all. It's more like a shift in dreams, a lateral slide from blank unknowning to bewildered confusion. It's a birthing into nightmare, a blinded child created in utter void with some horrific sense that all is not right. It is everywhere dark about [...]
June 1, 2011
Wool
My current project is another short novella, about the length of The Plagiarist. I'm really enjoying working with the constraints of 10,000 – 15,000 words. Developing characters and an interesting story in this frame is a challenge, but the reward is a piece of fiction readers can digest in a sitting. This is film adapted [...]
