B. Throwsnaill's Blog, page 3

Belief Systems and Fantasy

Photo by See-ming Lee .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericI recently had a conversation with a friend about the origins of belief systems.  We talked about how early humans created deities based on what they observed in the physical world around them. They saw the power of the sun to deliver light and warmth and worshiped it as a God.  They developed a familiarity with the land they lived on and soon worshiped it as the manifestation of an Earth God. ...

Fantasy 101 Anthology!

I am thrilled to announce that I will be part of the forthcoming Fantasy 101 Anthology!  This anthology brings the lead-in novels of four fantastic indie series together in one box set!  Think of it as an on ramp into four cool series.  And the best part is you get four full length novels for only 99 cents!  The anthology goes on sale tomorrow and is going to be promoted on iTunes via Smashwords.  If you are reading this you may already own Hemlock and the Wizard Towe...

Reality Engine

Photo by Idaho National Laboratory .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericI've been thinking about the nature of consciousness, lately, and reading some philosophy on the subject. I was initially drawn back into this line of thinking by an interesting argument about whether we are living in a computer simulation. This argument presupposes that you accept that the human brain and consciousness itself will eventually be modeled by the advanced computers of the future. I...

Strange Evolutions

Photo by Mike Licht .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericLife is full of strange evolutions.  At one point in your life you might find yourself shaking your fist at authority and later in life you may become an authority yourself.  As a man, you could spend your youth trying to decode the enigma that is woman, and later become the father of a daughter.  In our youth, we might shake our heads in disgust at the seemingly anachronistic habits of the elde...

Superflying Doubt!

Photo by Anonymous Collective .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericI've decided to break from my normal writing routine and try something different.  I usually blog in the evenings after work, but, lately, I've found that my fatigue level is too high in the evenings to do much of anything that requires concentration.  So, I'm taking a writing session away from working on the new Hemlock novel to write this.

It's important to at least nominally stay in touch...

Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy now free!

Photo by Rudi Riet .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericHemlock and the Dead God's Legacy, Book Two in the Maker's Fire series, is now free at all major retail outlets.  Since I've previously written about my aversion to offering additional books in my fantasy series for free, I feel like I need to explain myself.

One reason I made Book Two free is to benefit from the additional exposure the free downloads provide.  On the first few nights Book Two went fre...

Change Reaction

Photo by Open Democracy .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericI've blogged about this before, but sometimes I get a terrible feeling of restlessness.  My greatest desire in these moments of anxiety is to change something.  Part of me yearns for a sense of adventure that seems lacking in my life.  But adventures are usually risky, and I am in a risk averse period of my life right now.  But this feeling or force in me keeps searching for an outlet. ...

Losing Control and Gaining Sanity

Photo by kurokayo .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericWe lost power last week and I had an interesting experience roughing it.  When we first lost power, I spent several hours setting up the small generator we have and running extension cords into the house.  I had a devil of a time starting that generator.  I eventually had to get some ether to turn it over, but I didn't figure that out until I had tried a couple hundred pulls and injured my shoulde...

Gaming as a Metaphor for Life

Photo by Mild Mannered Photographer .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericThe following is the first post in a blog series I'll be writing about the parallels between real life and video games.  I used to be a big gamer, and I applied many of the concepts I learned in games to advance myself in real life.  How, you ask?  Read on!
 
I used to be a person that was crippled by social anxiety--a person who was more comfortable interacting with machines...

Asterisk

Photo by Steve Snodgrass .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 GenericWhat is the origin of the creeping malaise that continually conspires to prevent me from making blog updates?  I guess you'd have to call it sloth.  I've been waiting to be inspired, but at some point it becomes obvious that one simply has to write something or a blog ceases to be a blog and becomes something more like a requiem.

Ah, here's a thought.  OK, wait.  First off, rest assured...