Back in my day, The Sims was a phenomenon. Everyone was playing the game, from Granny down the street to the teenage basement-dwelling punk. Finally, a game where you could make your avatar do exciting things like. . .go to work, and exercise, and cook dinner, and use the bathroom. Why would you want to run around like some super hero saving the world when you…
One of my favorite games growing up was the original Zork on the Atari 8-bit. I sucked at it, for sure, but I remember spending countless hours mapping out the the huge cavern and the dam lobby, not exactly knowing the point of the game but sensing something great from that Grue-begotten adventure. For years after that, I couldn’t get enough of adventure games, something that…
I once read an article about a man who had grown up oblivious to the emotions of others. I can’t recall the details of his situation, but much later in life he went through medical treatments that allowed him to gain the super power of emotion. He hated it. It totally ruined his comfy middle class life. It’s like the 30 Rock episode where Tracy Jordan…
Even though we technically have a cable box hooked up in a remote corner of our house next to the dresser that leads to Narnia, our family has long ago cut the cable cord. Amy and I were streaming shows when Netflix only offered Red Dwarf and whatever Stephen King movie featured the young Drew Barrymore, and we haven’t looked back since. This last week, though,…
A few weeks ago, I read “The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls” by Claire Legrand. I really enjoyed it, despite some disturbing parts–which were Finley’s favorite. For days after we finished, Finley asked me again and again to read the “Lobby” scene, which was one of the most frightening scenes in the book. Since this is the boy who thinks Rescue Bots is on…
I finally got through major edit number two for my current work, Red Cliff. Or at least that’s the developer name. Some pretty major changes since the last time I posted a snippet, so I thought it’d stick the first chapter up here as a sample. I know there’s still some editing work to do, and I can’t get the text formatting right on the web browser,…
Finley has a bit of a problem with cussing, with some of his earliest phrases being such decidedly not G rated language like “Dammit, it’s out of batteries.” His latest phrase is calling all persons, places, and things, a bunch of “bullshid.” Normally, I try to redirect his foul mouth down more appropriate avenues (“scalliway” and “horse hockey” are two of my temporary successes), but…
Turns out I hate myself. Or at least I’m a wanton for emotional punishment. Maybe the two are one in the same. Earlier this year, I found The Little Prince next to our computer and decided to read it to my kids. I knew it was a classic in the Mark Twain sense of being a book much praised but never read (well, at least by…
In November, I’m most likely getting published. Exciting news, right? That’s the dream of every writer, finally seeing his or her work in. . .well, it’s still going to be digital, so not print, but it will have gone through an honest to goodness publishing house. Now before anyone lines up to ask how they can pre-order my soon to be famous work, I’ve got to…
This is the time of year when I typically look out the window at the beautiful sunshine pouring down on my disastrous backyard and think, “Boy, that snow sure did a good job covering all the garbage.” I have a list sitting in the back of my mind of all the things that I should be doing to make my house HOA approved. It pulses…