Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog, page 33
November 25, 2018
Sacrifice and “The Gift of the Magi”
We all know the O. Henry story “The Gift of the Magi.” So, I’m not giving away any spoilers by telling you that it’s about the young wife who sells her hair to buy a chain for her husband’s pocket watch, only to find that he sold his pocket watch to buy combs for her …
November 14, 2018
Gratitude when you’ve lost everything
This has been a hard year for many people I know. I have friends who were forced out of their homes during the recent California fires. A coworker of a high school friend was killed at the Borderline shooting in Thousand Oaks. I’ve been in touch with people who lost friends at Stoneman Douglas. A …
November 2, 2018
Write anyway
I started on my NaNoWriMo project, but life, as it often does, has other ideas. I already knew I would have hernia surgery later this month. And then, we got a call from our Registrar of Voters asking for volunteers to be poll workers. They are expecting a large turnout for these midterms, even bigger than …
October 26, 2018
Memento mori
Recently, Manuel Oliver presented a 3-D printed statue of his son Joaquin at Times Square. I’ve talked about Stoneman Douglas before on this site. But this particular story says something about how we view death — and how we value life. It’s important we look at this, especially with all that has happened in the …
October 20, 2018
Elections and hernias
By now, you’ve heard plenty of people (including myself) tell you how crucial these midterm elections are and how important it is for you to come out and vote. If you are still unconvinced, let me tell you about my hernia. A few months ago, I noticed that my belly button looked a little strange. …
October 15, 2018
Give yourself permission to…
Welcome to all of you who found this site from my flyer at Indie Author Day. My site has plenty of tips on writing and public speaking, but I want to give you the most important tip of all. Take care of your health. When we are creating, working, or dealing with our other responsibilities, …
October 2, 2018
The villain’s journey
I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. It has been a while since I finished a novel, and I need to get another book going. I have a story in mind, but I have to approach it differently from the other novels I’ve written. This time, I’m focusing on the villain’s journey. The story started out as …
September 25, 2018
Why I love writing fiction
Technical writing is my bread and butter, but I love fiction writing. As a child, I enjoyed making up stories and creating adventures for my GI Joe and Major Matt Mason action figures. As I started writing, my Holy Grail was to write The Great American Novel, make the New York Times bestseller list, get the …
September 20, 2018
The joys of technical writing
Before I started in the computer industry in 1983, I had never heard of technical writing. I found out about it from a job listing at the CSUN Career Center. As I got into the field, I discovered how much I liked it. The career combines two things I enjoy: writing and working with the …
August 31, 2018
Don’t be desperate
If you want to turn off an audience, the quickest way to do it is through desperation. So why do I see so much desperation in advertisements these days? Here are some examples of emails that I received and promptly deleted. Emphasis is from the original. “This could not get any worse, Matthew…[W]ith less than …
