Christopher B. Wright's Blog, page 54
June 7, 2012
The Points Between - Chapter 22
The second and third floors of the tower were like the first—completely empty, and covered in dust. The fourth floor opened into a narrow hall with rooms on each side; there was no ventilation on that floor that he could see and the dark, dust and heat made him reluctant to explore. The fifth floor—the last floor on the tower—was a little more inviting. A short hall opened up into a circular room, and four other rooms connected to it. Windows in each room let in some light, as well as a sligh...
May 29, 2012
I'm Not Here To Pick A Fight
I’m not here to pick a fight, but it seems like a lot of self-publishers are.
Tactically, it makes sense. If you cast yourself in the role of the plucky underdog struggling against the oppressive overlords, well, that’s a good story. People love that kind of narrative, and if people like your narrative, they’ll look at you more closely. When you’re starting out, alone, unknown, ignored by humanity at large, anything you can possibly think of that will get the attention of anyone around you see...
May 28, 2012
The Points Between Podcast - Chapter 21
"The Siege" : Matthew is pursued through the forest as he attempts to locate the tower.
The Points Between - Chapter 21
"The Siege" : Matthew is pursued through the forest as he attempts to locate the tower.
May 24, 2012
Roundtable Podcast: The Aftermath
I think most writers want to believe their initial ideas are perfect.1 It's usually the initial idea that gets us excited about writing something, after all, and would we bother getting excited over something less than perfect? We would not, sir! We would not!
The reality is that initial ideas are exciting, not perfect. Exciting is good, but exciting for an author isn't necessarily exciting for a reader. This realization can be ego-deflating; fortunately, a writer's ego is quick to recover fro...
May 23, 2012
The Points Between - Chapter 21
It was years since Matthew had slept outdoors. Even then he’d separated himself from the outside world with a tent—it seemed like very little at the time, but it kept out insects. When the morning sun made it impossible for him to stay asleep, Matthew thought back on that tent wistfully; he itched from head to toe.
“Mosquitos,” he mumbled, then stretched—then winced. His arms and legs still ached from the swim, and were all the more stiff from sleeping on the ground.
He itched, he was starting...
May 21, 2012
My Official Podcasting Debut
Some of you are familiar with my initial, hesitant steps into podcasting--specifically, that I am podcasting my fiction, starting with Pay Me, Bug! and continuing with The Points Between. It's been... um... interesting.1 Some of you have enjoyed it, which is kind, but I don't think anyone can claim that my production values, editing, or basic presentation of each episode have been polished or professional.
Which is one of the reasons why I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be on a podcas...
May 17, 2012
Success Requires Stupidity
OK, bear with me on this one.
For the last few days I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather—a cold, a sore throat, nothing particularly debilitating but enough of an impediment to make my work day miserable.
In a somewhat unrelated fact, I’ve needed to clean the basement for months. A while back one of my dogs, Pandora, died—she was a very, very old dog, and at one point near the end she stopped trying to make the effort to go outside when she needed to… well… go. The basement became her toil...
(Why I Have Problems With) Writing Women Well
A much earlier, less complete version of this essay can be found on my Google+ account, from about a year back. What’s funny is that the essay back then had pretty much the same opening—DC Comics manages to remain relevant. Poor bastards.
DC Comics has become something of a punching bag—deservedly so, in my opinion—because people have noticed that the way women are, on the whole, being portrayed in the DC Universe is… um… less than flattering to women in the real world. It’s as if the guys run...
May 16, 2012
Going the Full Doctorow: What Not to Expect From Your Creative Commons Licensed Work
Eleven years ago Cory Doctorow released a book called Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. What was unique for the time was that not only was it published under a traditional publisher (Tor), but it was also published under a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives license directly on his website, allowing people to stop by his site and download it for free. What did it mean? It meant that anyone could download the book and redistribute it for free, as long as they didn’t alter it in any w...
