Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 44

New Project: The Outline

I am an outliner, and right now, I’m damned glad of it. Prior to beginning a project, I createa fairly extensive outline. Some writers prefer a more organic method; they set up a character in a conflict and write to see where it takes them. If I were a writer like that, this project would […]

Happy Valley: It Is and It Isn’t

You want a strong female character? I’ll give you a strong female character. Catherine Caewood (played by Sarah Lancashire) is the lead rolein BBC’s Happy Valley, a crime drama set in working-class West Yorkshire; it’s a valley, but it isn’t happy. This character isperhaps the most conflicted, complex, and yet utterly understandable creations I’ve seen […]

New Project: Diving In

I have discovered a corollary to Parkinson’s Law. If you don’t know, Parkinson’s law is: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. My discovery, which I shall call theResearcher’s Corollary to Parkinson’s Law, is: Research material expands to exceed the time available. In my experience, the factor by which this material expands […]

The Tao of Elwood: A New Project Arises

As regular readers have deduced,my current WIP,The Wolf Tree, has been languishing, left untended due to a variety of life events. I should probably call it a “work-in-stasis” rather than a work-in-progress. Now it’sofficial:The Wolf Tree is on the back burner. The reason: I received an email asking if I’d like to write a book. […]

A Man of Meh-ny Talents

I’ve always taken pride in being a generalist. Robert Heinlein, in one of the few quotes of his that I like, said“Specialization is for insects,” and for myself, this feels like truth. For me, it fits. While I am thoroughly capable of obsessing about…well,about pretty muchanything…I am not capable of concentrating on one topic, to […]

Pulitzer Schmulitzer

As regular readers know, I have what I call The 40-Page Dropkick Rule. When I begin readinga book, it has forty pages to grab me, draw me in, and make me want to keep reading. For exceptionally long books, the forty page limit can be extended to fifty, sometimes eighty. Regardless the limit, if I’m […]

Oh, Look! A Chicken!

Americaisgetting me down and I need a distraction. Perhaps you do, too. To help us get through the week, instead of a pithy post about some socially relevant concept or[snicker]a staggering work of artistic prose, here’s a diversion. My wife. My wife has a greatlaugh. It’s one of those infectious laughs that starts in her […]

The Elephant in the Room

I’ve been having difficulty selecting topics for my blog posts lately. I’ve been having difficulty not because I don’t haveideas. I have plenty. My problem is, the topics that have been consuming me of late have been political, and I reallyreally try to avoid partisan politics on this blog. Why avoid politics? First off, I […]

Correct Word = Right Word?

I was about halfway through Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,The Goldfinch, when I stumbled while readingthe following: Whenever he was gluing up a piece of furniture it was my job to set out all the right cramps, each at the right opening, while he lay out the pieces in precise mortise-to-tenon order—painstaking preparation for the […]

The Long Conversation: Seasonal Shifts

Late winteris my “difficult”season. Maybe it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder. Maybe it’s the combination of allergies and holiday letdown. This year, it’s also the ongoing can’t-look-away train wreck that is our electoral process. Either way, I’ve been depressedand unmotivated for the past couple of months. Plus, as it’s March, I now have to deal with all […]