H.M. Cooper's Blog, page 2
July 18, 2012
Competition
Competing
It’s probably rare for an author to know how his book is being received while he’s still writing it. That’s the beauty of writing a serial. It’s also the danger. “Sentient Spring” is doing quite badly on readership. I don’t want to let down the individuals who are actually reading it now, but I do want to try to address the problems with it. I don’t know exactly what those problems are, but I’m guessing they have to do with the story as well as with the pace.
July 9, 2012
June 25, 2012
Faith and ice cream
Ice Cream
I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about faith. I’ve wondered what it is exactly. I don't mean religious faith..I mean the kind of garden variety faith that keeps us going. This line of reasoning started with what is sometimes called ‘first principles’: that’s an investigation of the basic assumptions of an idea.
June 20, 2012
April 18, 2012
Learning curve
Learning Curve
A ‘learning curve’ is essentially this: you start doing something new and it’s hard and you have to struggle with it. As you learn more it becomes easier until you reach a point of some kind of mastery. That’s the ‘top’ of the learning curve and at that point you start to use what you know and the learning actually accelerates until you find yourself at a point where you seem to know nothing again and the whole cycle starts all over. I think I may be at the bottom of a ‘learning curve’ when it comes to writing. The thing is…I have a lot to learn.
April 6, 2012
That which is Caesar's
That which is Caesar's
Today, April 6, 2012 is a somewhat unique and holy day. It is Good Friday and it is the first evening of Passover on which the first Seder (ceremonial dinner) is celebrated. Many people know that the Last Supper was in fact a Passover Seder, so the significance of this time is golden. We can celebrate freedom in its many dimensions: the freedom from fear that Jesus gave us and the freedom from slavery that God gave the Jewish people 1000 years before.
March 30, 2012
March 25, 2012
Commitment or conscience?
Following the Straight Path
In ‘Invisible Children’ the protagonist, Diana, wonders why her roommate, Dani, can give herself permission to be promiscuous. There are going to be psychological factors in understanding this, but there are also social factors. Whose rules should a person follow? The individual rules we make for ourselves from our experience? Or the rules provided for us by society and, perhaps, religion?
