Christopher B. Wright's Blog, page 37

Point of No Return: Part One

Washington DC

Senator Tobias Alexander Morgan sits in his DC office, watching television.

He looks a lot like his grandfather, or the way his grandfather might have looked in his late fifties, if he’d aged like other people. Although his hair is dark—he takes after his mother in that respect—he has the same square jaw, and his eyes radiate the same piercing resolve that Liberty was so famous for. His appearance did a lot for his political career in the beginning. He knows it, and he doesn’t res...

Issue 16: Point of No Return

Story: Christopher Wright
Cover: Pascalle Lepas
Logo: Garth Graham

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday. I am 43 today.

In honor of turning 43--truly a perilous age, if ever there was one--I decided I wanted to do something reckless and ill-advised. Obviously that meant recording a political endorsement and posting it to YouTube.

Duh.

For those of you who don't play with iframes well: Birthday Wish - Mayday PAC

The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 28

ThePointsBetweenCh28.mp3

The Dance: Abel's warning about the danger Matthew poses to the Manor proves to be unpleasantly prophetic.

The Points Between - Chapter 28

The Dance

Matthew was still on the bridge when Alice found him. He saw her reflection in the water as she stood next to him—her actual reflection, this time, not a conjuration—and felt the pressure of her shoulder against his as she leaned against the rail and gazed sadly across the water. They stood that way for a while, not speaking, listening to the music from the pavilion, and then all at once she smiled. She nudged him, ever so slightly, with her shoulder.

“You’re very quiet.”

Matthew nodde...

Ten Things About Me as a Writer that are Probably Irrelevant (but that you might find interesting anyway)

While I was going through my Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul I found myself doing a fair amount of self-reflection. Or navel-gazing. I get them confused a lot, but THE POINT IS that as I did I started remembering odd little bits about myself that I found either vaguely amusing or semi-revelatory. I don't think they're informative on a deep, spiritual level, but they did amuse me. Think of it as me re-introducing myself to you, the audience, after a long absence.

So without further ado... Ten Th...

Yes Virginia, There Really is a Writer's Block

There are writers out there who are very clear in their opinion that there is no such thing as "Writer's Block." They are convinced that the phrase was invented by, I don't know, lazy writers seeking to excuse their own lack of commitment to their work, or writers who have been duped into thinking they are victims of some kind of strange external force bearing down on them, or something. I've read any number of articles from writers about how Writer's Block is a myth and it doesn't exist and...

April Really is the Cruelist Month

The thing I hate most about short-deadline, high-importance projects is the way I feel after it's done.

I mean, there's not much I like about short-deadline, high-importance projects in general. If it's “high-importance” and “short-deadline” together, the circumstances that led up to it are usually not good, and the work is usually unpleasant. When the work happens to be security documentation—and in the 20 years that I've been technical writing, security documentation takes the prize as “my l...

Help Desk Turns 18

18 years ago today Help Desk appeared for the first time on a web site devoted to news about an operating system some of you may not even remember these days. Each complete comic had to be under 12-15k in size in order for it to load in a reasonable amount of time on a 28.8 modem—15k was pushing it. The first comic was 12.8k in size, and my artistic ability was even worse than it is today. I know that's hard to believe, so here's proof:

That was the very first comic I ever published. It's... n...

There are times I do things of dubious value

... and when I do, I share them with you:

Link for those of you who don't want to deal with iframes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_1T64XQXA