Zachary Bonelli's Blog, page 90

Writers Need Feedback

[G]iven their free time, [writing group attendees] (on their own) do not go to the bookstore and read the type of writing that you’re doing. Yet, you’re willing to listen to them either praise or rip apart (the more likely scenario) your writing as they tell you “this bores me” or “this doesn’t work for me.” ...

See You at NorWesCon

Fuzzy Hedgehog Press will be at NorWesCon this weekend, at Seattle’s beautiful Double Tree Hilton Hotel. I’ll be there along with my friend and colleague Aubry Andersen, where we’ll be debuting physical copies of Insomnium and prints of the Aubry Andersen’s artwork from that novel. We’ll have a bunch of prints from Aubry’s Isaac the ...

Insomnium Retrospective

In early 2013, I was working on my first draft of Voyage Windbound. In many ways, that book will be the most difficult for me to publish. I lace all my books with my personality, my experiences, my worldview. You can certainly find bits of me in all my characters, perhaps some more than others. ...

The Future of Indie

I first met Dean Smith-Richard at an author reading in North Bend, Washington last year. He read from his short story anthology, 3024 AD. I was immediately impressed by his knowledge of the independent publishing scene and the energy and passion of his creative vision. An outlook like his is unusual, and it’s a trait I ...

The Conundrum of Beauty

At 7:51 AM on January 12, 2007, a man walked into a subway station in Washington D.C. carrying a violin. For forty-odd minutes, he performed classical music as busy commuters rushed past him. Twenty-seven of those commuters gave him money, coming to a total of $32. Over one thousand people hurried past, either not too ...

Netizenry Basics

“Netizenry”? Is that a word? Well, I’m going to run with it. It’s been that kind of day. The internet is a wonderful, amazing place. I believe it was fellow Seattlite Matthew Inman who said that it can also be a shrieking troll tornado. I’ll get right to it. There are ways to interact with other human ...

Better Judgment

There’s this thing I  keep hearing, especially from industry professionals, and since I consider myself at the professional stage, I feel it’s my duty to address this thing. Because I find it kind of gross. And here’s the thing. Even people whose opinions and presentation I wholly support and respect, they’re saying this thing, too. ...

Insomnium Cover Reveal

My Writing Process Blog Tour

You’ll remember Dan Thompson from my interview with him last year. Dan has numerous titles to his name, including The Caseworker’s Memoirs and Life is All But a Vast Array of Colours. I recently participated in the cover reveal for his upcoming novel Here Lies Love, and his young adult novel The Black Petal was ...

Graphic Novel Review: “Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon” by David Zelman

The reviewed graphic novel contains adult content. I should say this up front: I don’t read a lot of erotica. I come to literature for intellectual stimulation, not erotic. That said, for all its erotic content, Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon is an extremely intellegent riff on the fundamentalist values of conservative America, the fundamentalist values of ...