Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog, page 54
November 15, 2014
Reading other people’s manuals
I’ve been a technical writer for over 30 years, and I admit that I don’t always read the manual. If a product is well-designed, I can figure out how to use it on my own. When I get stuck, or if it requires complicated assembly or setup, I definitely read the manual. When I do read …
November 9, 2014
Poem: Motherland
I was in the Valley to do research when I stopped at the Firehouse Restaurant for lunch. It is near the corner of Victory and Reseda, close to where I used to live. As I looked out the large windows, I thought about what Reseda means to me and why I’m still drawn to it years after …
November 4, 2014
My Epic Rap Battles of History Requests for Season 4
I’m looking forward to season 4 of Epic Rap Battles of History. I’ve been a fan since season 2. My favorites (many of them are NSFW) are “Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates,” “Stephen King vs. Edgar Allen Poe,” and the season 3 finale, “Artists vs. TMNT.” What I like about the series is that you can …
October 29, 2014
Teenage Fantasies and Realities
The three YA novels I reviewed for the Red Adept Publishing Young at Heart book tour — Correlation, Upload, and Canvas Bound — have something in common. They all feature fantasies. Teenagers either travel back in time, save the world from a dangerous conspiracy, or journey inside paintings that have come to life. Fantasy seems …
October 26, 2014
Book Review: Canvas Bound
This is the third of three YA novels I’m reviewing for the Red Adept Publishing book tour, “Young at Heart.” Disclaimer: Review copy provided by Red Adept Publishing. Olivia “Libby” Tanner is a young painter with problems. Two fellow students at her English art academy are attracted to her, but the one she’s attracted to …
October 11, 2014
Book Review: Upload
This is the second of three YA novels I’m reviewing for the Red Adept Publishing book tour, “Young at Heart.” Disclaimer: Review copy provided by Red Adept Publishing. A teenager stumbles upon a murder and a violent conspiracy in the YA thriller Upload by Collin Tobin. Jay Brooks struggles to cope with his mother’s murder …
September 28, 2014
Book Review: Correlation
This is the first of three YA novels I’m reviewing for the Red Adept Publishing book tour, “Young at Heart.” Disclaimer: Review copy provided by Red Adept Publishing. “Do you believe it’s possible to change history?” Sixteen-year-old Hailey Kent faces this question in Correlation, a young adult novel by Rosemary Fifield (writing as Mia Grace). …
September 21, 2014
Why remember?
Another September 24. Another painful anniversary. And another question: Why remember a murder that happened nearly 40 years ago? Is it morbidity? A stubborn unwillingness to let go of a long-gone past? If I didn’t remember, the only alternative is to forget. “You cannot invest in retrospect,” as my dad used to say. And I …
September 14, 2014
How to Be a Writer: Lesson 4 – Develop Your Own Style
Think about your favorite author. What is it that keeps you coming back to that person’s books? Perhaps you enjoy the type of stories the author tells. Or the books feature a recurring character you like. Perhaps you like the way the author uses language or the types of scenes that appear in that person’s …
September 7, 2014
How to Be a Writer: Lesson 3 – Write Clear Descriptions
To be a good writer, I had to unlearn some habits I developed when I started. One of them was how I used imagery in my writing. In high school, I was into similes and metaphors. These are typically the first tools people learn in creative writing. I was also influenced by the singer-songwriters I …
