David B. Coe's Blog, page 29

D.B. Jackson is Open for Business!

The website, Facebook account, and other web-based manifestations of my new pseudonym, D.B. Jackson, are finally up and running.  You can find "D.B."'s website and blog at http://www.dbjackson-author.com and can find D.B. on Facebook as both a regular person-page (dbjackson) and as a fan page (D.B. Jackson).  D.B. is also on Twitter and Good Reads, though those accounts are not yet fully active.

Why all the activity?  Well, it's true that the first D.B. Jackson novel, Thieftaker , volume I in the Chronicles of the Thieftaker, won't be out from Tor Books until May 2012.  But D.B.'s first short story, "The Tavern Fire," appears in the upcoming anthology, After Hours:  Tales from the Ur-Bar , edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray.  After Hours will be out March 1, from DAW.  And over the course of this year, D.B. will be posting sample chapters and original short fiction to his website.  In fact, the first three chapters of Thieftaker are available there already.  So check out the site, come by and "like" D.B.'s Facebook page, and stay tuned for more news!

Thanks.

One Last Post on Descriptive Passages

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, Stuart Jaffe, and Edmund Schubert, among others. The post is called “Descriptive Passages, Part III: Action” and it deals with how to reconcile descriptive passages with fast-moving action scenes. I hope you enjoy it.

Snowfall

There's a beautiful snow falling right now.  The past few storms we've had have been violent affairs -- stiff winds, frigid temperatures.  Nothing gentle about them.  But there is no wind tonight, and the air is cold but not biting.  Sounds are muffled, peaceful.  Already we've got close to an inch, and though the forecast is for two inches or so, I think we'll wind up with more. It's clinging to branches and tree trunks, so that the lights on the house make it seem that the trees are glowing.  It's been a long winter, and many of us are ready for an early spring.  But this is lovely.

A Second Post About Descriptive Writing

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, Stuart Jaffe, and Edmund Schubert, among others. The post is called “Descriptive Passages, Part II: Character” and it deals with writing descriptions of people and allowing them to do more for our stories than just tell our readers what a person looks like. I hope you enjoy it.

What's at Stake in this SuperBowl? Merely the Existence of a Just God

I'm an agnostic.  Let me say that right up front.  I don't believe in God, and even if I did, I would hope that he or she had more important things to do than watch a football game.

But if the Pittsburgh Steelers win this Super Bowl, that will be the final piece of evidence I need to conclude that there is no just and loving God in the heavens.

I know, there are lots of Steelers fans out there.  Forgive me.  I know as well that football teams are big -- 53 men on a roster.  This game isn't about just one person.  Except that it is.  Super Bowls almost always wind up being about the quarterbacks and once again the Steelers are led by Ben Roethlisberger.  Roethlisberger, for those of you who don't know, missed the first four games of the season due to a league suspension for personal misconduct.  It seems Big Ben, as he is sometimes known (I assume much to the chagrin of British citizens everywhere), doesn't really understand that when a woman says "no," this isn't some code meaning she actually wants to be sexually assaulted.

Twice Roethlisberger has been implicated in sexual assaults, once in 2008 and once in 2010.  In neither case were charges actually fined, but the 2010 accusations were compelling enough to make the NFL bench one of its star players even without legal action -- a telling indictment.  Already there is talk in the media of how this game gives Big Ben a chance to redeem himself, and that's enough to make me want to throw up.  In what way does a Steeler win offer redemption to the women Roethlisberger has brutalized?  If a season that began with Roethlisberger sitting out games because of his repulsive behavior and ends with him holding the Lombardi Trophy, it will simply reinforce the notion that, in America, if you're rich enough and famous enough and good enough at those things our culture values, like throwing a football, it doesn't matter what other crap you do in your spare time.

Playing Luke Skywalker to Roethlisberger's Darth Vader is Green Bay Packers star QB, Aaron Rogers.  Rogers, I'm sure, is no saint.  But he is, from all appearances, a decent guy, one who doesn't hurt people in his spare time.  It would be nice to see him win the game, if for no other reason than because it would mean that Roethlisberger had lost.

I doubt that will happen, though.  The Steelers are a very good team, particularly on defense.  And though I happen to think that as a player Roethlisberger is vastly overrated, the Steelers probably have enough offensive firepower to ride their defense to a win.  Which will really be too bad, because while I am an agnostic, it's nice to wonder now and then if there might be a divine being, merciful and just, watching over us.

A Post About Descriptive Writing, Part I

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, Stuart Jaffe, and Edmund Schubert, among others. The post is called “Descriptive Passages, Part I: Setting” and it deals with writing description and knowing how much to include in a given section of a book or story. I hope you enjoy it.

A Tough Age

I don't know if it's any harder being a teenager now than it was when I was 15 or 16.  I think in some ways the struggles of adolescence are constant, untouched by changing trends or advances in technology.  In other ways I do think that today's kids have things harder (and maybe easier, too).

All I know for certain is that being the parent of a teen is infinitely harder than being a teen.

My fifteen year-old is hurting tonight, and beyond telling her that I love her, there really isn't much I can do about it.  Nothing I faced when I was 15 is tougher than that.

A Magical Words Anniversary

Today’s post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, Stuart Jaffe, and Edmund Schubert, among others. The post is called “Magical Words at Three Years!” and it celebrates the third anniversary of the founding of Magical Words. I hope you’ll stop by and help us mark the occasion.

A New Post About Ideas

Today’s post can be found at http://www.sfnovelists.com, the group blog on speculative fiction that I maintain along with a group of over one hundred published authors of fantasy and science fiction. The post is called “A New Idea,” and it’s about the mysterious origins of writing ideas. I hope you enjoy it.

A Pensive Post

Is there ever a time when things aren't rushed, when a thousand different tasks, commitments, projects, and such aren't clamoring for our attention?  I mean, yeah, okay -- vacation.  But I'm not sure that counts.  This isn't even a particularly crazed time, but it feels like I've got too many things to do and not enough hours in the day.

Does reaching middle age mean that carefree is a relic of our past?  Or was carefree an illusion born of ignorance?  It seems sometimes that life careens from one crisis to another -- work, health, family, kids, back to work, once more to family.  I find myself longing for "normal," only to realize that I wouldn't know "normal" if it walked up to me and smacked me in the forehead.  Maybe "normal" is an illusion, too.

Not an especially uplifting post, I know.  And I apologize for that.  But I felt that I wanted to post -- I'm trying to post more often this year, and so far am doing a not-so-good-job of it -- and this is what was on my mind.

My mood?  Not sad, but definitely pensive.