Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog, page 65
May 3, 2013
Why caffeine fuels writing
In college, I learned that Honoré de Balzac drank cup after cup of black coffee each day. That’s probably because he didn’t have Diet Coke. Why do writers take to caffeine like musicians take to weed? Why are you unable to find a table at Starbucks because all of them are taken by writers pounding …
April 23, 2013
Getting into character for first-person narratives
When I decided to make The Ghosts of Reseda High a first-person narrative, I had to go back to my experiences at Reseda High School to figure out how to write it. In high school, I performed in several musicals. In a 1978 production of Dames at Sea, I played Hennesey, the harried Broadway producer. …
April 17, 2013
Why faith in goodness is not enough
Patton Oswalt and Mister Rogers have been doing their best to keep us sane after the horror of Boston. I would like to believe what they say about good outnumbering evil and that the helpers will always be there. Then I read the message boards on news sites where the trolls hide behind their anonymity …
April 13, 2013
My why
Some messages are so powerful, they can force you to rethink everything. For me, it is Scott Sinek’s talk at TEDxPuget Sound, “How great leaders inspire action.” In summary, he says that successful people and companies start with the why. Why do they exist? Why do they do what they do? Why should people listen …
April 8, 2013
Accidentally offensive
OK, Brad Paisley. You don’t want people to judge you because of your region’s history or how you look. A noble sentiment. So, why doesn’t “Accidental Racist” work? (I’m looking at the song solely as a form of communication and setting the historical and cultural issues of the song aside — for now.) If you …
April 5, 2013
What C.G.P. Grey can teach you about publishing
The indie author world was abuzz about John Winter’s lament in Salon about being a “self-publishing failure.” (I’m not sure whether Winter was saying, “I tried everything and couldn’t sell any books” or “I want to prove that self-publishing is for the unwashed masses of hacks who have too much false hope and too little …
March 30, 2013
Star Wars Memories
I’m updating the pages from my old Reseda High School Class of 1979 site to my main blog. The first of these is an article I wrote in 2005 about the Star Wars prequels and my memories of the first movie that came out in 1977. It will be interesting to see what Disney will …
March 22, 2013
Two poems from the 1980s
I was digging through some old files, and I found two poems I wrote as a student at Cal State Northridge in the 1980s. These are from a class I took that was taught by Eloise Klein Healy. She gave me great advice. I submitted these poems to the school’s creative writing magazine, Northridge Review. …
March 17, 2013
A year with a MacBook Pro
The true test of a purchase is if you are still happy with it a year after you bought it. My MacBook Pro passes that test. I bought my refurbished early 2011 MacBook Pro last year after using Windows computers for over 20 years. My computer still runs as well as the day I bought …
March 15, 2013
Comic Books Heroes now available for feedback
My latest screenplay, Comic Book Heroes, is now available for feedback on Amazon Studios. I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions about it. Please visit the page on Amazon Studios and post your ratings and comments. You can also vote for it and other premises on the Premise War page. Thank you for your …
