A.B. Keuser's Blog, page 16

Friday Reads 2017 #1

My goals for the first 2 weeks of January included 4 books (I didn't make that) and my goal for the month was 8.

And I’ve managed to get close (if you count the fact that I’m in the middle of book 6 and should be done with it tomorrow).
Let’s talk about what I’ve read, shall we?





Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie - It has taken me far too long to read this book, and I hope to

Author Spotlight: Jamie Wyman

Throughout the year, I’m going to talk about some authors I really like. These are people I’ve met in various situations that are just great people, who also happen to be authors. People whose names you should know for two reasons: a) they’re awesome b) they write kickass books!

So let’s talk about Jamie Wyman.




A local phoenix author, Jamie first caught my eye when I discovered the Cat

Planning the Year

I work best with a plan.


That’s true of writing a book, both in plotting and time management.

A book is a huge task. It’s hours out of your life. It’s 100,000-words beaten out of your fingers by little plastic keys. It’s 300 page bloodied with ink, crumpled and thrown at the wall in frustration. It is a piece of you carved out, thrown on a slab and stabbed a few times, just for good measure.

7 Reasons I Would Never Be Cryogenically Frozen

I Hate The Cold. This one might be a little on the nose, but it’s true. On top of that, I am abnormally sensitive to the cold. As I write this, I’m sitting in an office where the building’s system is set to “Fan” and my fingernails have a lovely purple ombre.



Freezer Burn: The Science Isn’t Here Yet. Here’s the thing. I’m skeptical of anything touted as being remotely close to the cryonics

Oath Breaker Insights

So, in 2011, I had an idea. It probably resulted from a fever dream about the TV series Andromeda (a show I only partly remember anymore). That idea was for a sentient ship AI who, unlike Rommie, was not helpful in the slightest. An AI that was just as selfish and easily influenced as a human… one that could love, hate, and experience every emotion in between. One that didn’t know how to

Unanswerable Questions

In rewatching the J-series of QI on Hulu, I was once again amused by the dream question thought up by Victoria Coren Mitchell.


Why was the March Hare so important to the Aztecs?

And then of course she referenced Lewis Carrol’s question: Why is a raven like a writing desk?

She called them both unanswerable questions, but they’re not really. Questions like that have a hundred answers. At

Writing Resolve

  I’ve mentioned before, here and elsewhere, that I don’t make resolutions. I make goals and I set them all throughout the year and shift as necessary, etc.


But some goals simply HAVE to be set in January. There’s no getting around it. With the exception of school things, January is place where our year starts and so, if you want to track something over a year, it just makes sense to do it

Finding Inspiration

One of the questions I hear most often (whether it’s being asked of me or a friend) is:

“Where do you get your ideas?”
It’s something that comes up all the time. Everyone wants to know we got to sparkly vampires, a wizard school, that one ring, or a family’s drama screwing up the galaxy one lightsaber swing at a time.
So what’s the answer? Where do these things come from?
I read once that

What I’m Excited For in January

IRL


Yesterday was my husband’s birthday, so we’re doing all the things celebratory (and have been all week). It’s always fun as Christmas runs into New Years runs into Birthday.


I have a tattoo appointment in two weeks which is always fun! I decided to turn the magpie and fox tattoo that covers about 1/3rd of my lower left leg into a full wrap, so I’ll be taking my leg up north and handing

IWSG: New Year, New Possibilities

January is that time of year when people around the world set out resolutions and goals for the new year and, if you ask people like my mother, February is the time of year when people forget them, or decide to push them off until next year.


I’ve had a lot of goals in the past for what I want my year to look like. There was the year I set out to write a million words (spoiler, I did it!).