This is a pretty good book. Correction: this could have been a pretty good book. Here’s why. The Apprentice is what you might call a Sword and Sorcery genre book. It involves three swashbucklers that belong to the Black Knights, elite fighters sort of like the Musketeers of Alexander Dumas fame. They are given the … More Review: “The Apprentice” by M. L. Hall
How to Build a Time Machine: The Real Science of Time Travel by Brian Clegg. St. Martin’s Press. 307 pages. No self-respecting science fiction writer would try to write without actually reading some science, and this is more ammunition for my speculation gun. Brian Clegg holds a physics degree from Cambridge University, and is the … More Review: “How To Build a Time Machine” by Brian Clegg
It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, and my dreams for National Novel Writing Month have pretty much been a shipwreck, but I was able to accomplish one pretty good thing during that time. Last night, I successfully launched my 16th book title. The Last Supper is a collection of short stories that I will … More Announcing…(drum roll) Book Number 16
When I turned 30, it was a tough year. Somewhere along the line, I’d heard someone say, “If you’re not doing what you love by the time you’re 30, you’ll never do it.” Thirty meant that I had left my teen years and innocent 20s behind me, and had to become an adult. Thirty meant … More 60
People read books for a lot of different reasons. My wife very rarely will read a work of fiction. On the other hand, her side of our library is filled with self-help books. That’s her thing. I, on the other hand, read fiction–a lot of it. I also like to read historical fiction and non-fiction. … More The Extraordinary and the Commonplace
One can never really anticipate when the turning point of our life will be. In retrospect, it’s relatively easy to look back and see that our life changed for better—or worse—when we met a significant other, when we got a job, when a child was born, or maybe when we made a major decision in … More “Yesterday and Tomorrow”
Well, I haven’t been posting later, and a lot of the reason for that is that I am embarrassed. National Novel Writing Month has started, but I haven’t. I signed up, mind you, but that’s as far as I have gotten. In the signing up part, they asked for a synopsis of my story. In … More Flummoxed
Bernie Hoxstetler was bored with his life. That’s not to say he was depressed, or angry, or suicidal. After who knows how many years of the same old thing, he was just plain bored. Every morning he arose to find his breakfast ready for him at the door of his penthouse suite: oatmeal with raisins, … More “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”
I got the November issue of Wired magazine in my office last week, and was pleased to see that it included an interview with Orson Scott Card, author of Ender’s Game and many other great science fiction stories and books. I consider Ender’s Game one of the top ten science fiction stories of all time. … More It’s Not Magic, Just Hard Work
I teach a class called Writing for Publication at my university, but for me, writing is writing. I never pass up the opportunity for my students to learn something new. Part of that is simply getting them to experience life–and to write–outside their comfort zone. And so this morning, I took my students to the … More Rest in Peace
