I've been building a book about a detective who believes everything has a rational explanation, and I've dropped him into a world where magic is real on the first page. The detective is the Scarecrow. That's the joke underneath the whole thing — he isn't an outsider who wanders into Oz skeptical of it. He's … Continue reading The Rules Behind the Magic
Tag: Life
Hold the Thread
If my past self walked in and watched me work now, he'd think I'd lost my mind. On a normal afternoon I've got three or four conversations with AI running at once, each one chewing on a different problem. While they work, I'm answering email, checking back with people I owe an answer, reviewing something … Continue reading Hold the Thread
The Room That Knew What I Knew
I found an old Toastmasters competition video of myself the other night. Watching old video of myself is its own small torture — you're looking at a former version, and you can see everything he doesn't know yet. It's like watching a younger sibling do the thing. But I'll say it plainly: it was a … Continue reading The Room That Knew What I Knew
The Voice I Like to Read
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 6 I read Phase Defiant somewhere between eight and ten times before I finished it. Not just to fix it — I'd already fixed a lot of it. I read it because I liked reading it. Every pass, it still struck me. I'd written the kind of book I … Continue reading The Voice I Like to Read
The Route
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 3 I sat down to work on the novel tonight and didn't write a single sentence of it. I spent the whole session working out how the major threads connect — how one specific character has to move through the story to get where she needs to end up. … Continue reading The Route
