Thoughts from Henry Miller

 In 1934, he published, Tropic of Cancer, his first book. It was banned for obscenity in the United States. His following works, Black Spring (1936) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) would also have to be smuggled into his home country.

 

Break the Blocks and Kick Your Muse

Writing was going good. Sentences flying from your fingers as you watched your story come to life around you. Half sight half dream your characters play out the scene and you watch and describe and take notation. The scene ends. You take a drink of coffee. The world focuses around you once more. And then...

...nothing. Not a thing comes to mind. The last scene was perfect, you had been building it, layer by layer for a week, but now... nothing. Your Muse has left the room, with a cheeky wiggle of distain. 

And Long Remains the Blame

As longtime political handicapper Stu Rothenberg wrote in a post-Memorial Day column:

"The country is as polarized as it was two months ago, and the trajectory of the contest is essentially unchanged, with Biden holding a comfortable lead in national polling and having multiple paths to 270 electoral votes.

"While daily developments give the cable television networks something to chatter about, today's big story will be replaced by a new one tomorrow, and another one the day after that. But the fundamentals of the race remain unchanged."

IS IT OK TO... ?

This is a question which is asked with frequency by writers who have recently committed to the idea of getting serious with their time and have decided to take it out on a novel. Is it Ok to...?

How to write headlines that convert

You know that — on average —

only 2 out of 10 people read an article beyond the headline, don’t you? If you don’t write irresistible headlines, even fewer will read your content.

How to self-edit so you don’t look dumb

Whether you are a good writer or not doesn’t matter.

Does this surprise you?

The only way to become a master writer is to become awe-inspiringly good at editing. Advertising great David Ogilvy says this:

I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft.

Getting Your Content on Google

There is a basic fact that we need to get clear here. Other than yourself, there is no one on this planet who wants your content showing up as often as possible in the SERPs than Google.

For nearly two decades Google has spent 100s of 1000s on giving you an education, and telling you exactly what it takes to get you listed as often as possible. They want you to be #1! Reels of Video Training on YouTube,. Free College Credit Classes at Universities across the nation, MOOCs, free advertisement with Adwords (up to $500 at times). Reams of pages, and the best Analytics program money can buy given to you with all the training and needs you could imagine -- for free.

How to enchant your audience

• If you try to sell right off the bat without building trust, the sceptics will quickly click away.
• If you delight your readers with your product or idea, if you provide real solutions to their problems, they’ll want to find out more.
• Use the following tips to engage, delight, and ultimately sell:
• Understand your readers. Know their fears, dreams, and desires. How can you engage with someone you don’t understand?
• Don’t write for a large audience. Choose one person, picture him, and write to him as if he’s a friend.
• Use a conversational tone of voice. Nobody wants to chat with a company.
• Be engaging. Using the word you is the most powerful way to be more engaging.
• Be remarkable. So much content is out there, how can you stand out? Disclose your point of view, tell your personal story, and develop your own writing voice. If your readers feel they know you, they will connect with you.
• Use familiar language. Check Twitter, Facebook or Google’s Keyword Tool — and find the wording your readers use. 
• Avoid jargon. Always choose the simplest possible expression of your idea. Avoid obscure words.
• Don’t insult your readers. Being clear doesn’t mean you have to tell your readers things they already know.

Be likeable. Do great things for your readers, help them out, and be generous. It’s obvious isn’t it?

How to write content your readers will remember

You’ve made so much effort.

You write, and write, and write. People are reading your content, but your message doesn’t stick. Your readers are forgetting it, and fast.

Don’t worry.

The following nine simple tactics will make your message unforgettable:

1. Use sound bites. These are easy-to-remember, easy-to-quote nuggets of wisdom, just like proverbs. And haven’t generations of people remembered proverbs?
2. Avoid routine common sense. You won’t win reader loyalty with your breathtaking grasp of the obvious.

The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium, #4)

by David Lagercrantz

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 2,247 ratings — published 2015

This fall, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return in the highly anticipated follow-up to Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. In this adrenaline-charged thriller, genius-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist face a dangerous new threat and must again join forces. Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a trusted source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female super hacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Lisbeth for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. In The Girl in the Spider's Web, the duo who thrilled 80 million readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest meet again in an extraordinary and uniquely of-the-moment thriller.

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief Believe

I grew up in writing under the impression that the Willing Suspension of Disbelief was a fact. I never questioned it, as it fit my personal experience with books and stories -- even movies -- perfectly.  The way it was explained to me by one of my first mentors said, "You can get away with anything. The reader is 'willing to believe' -- just don't remind them they are reading a book. Don't break the spell." What that meant was -- the sky can be purple, the planet square and the ice on the poles burning -- no problem. However, if you have your character put some ice into her glass and it doesn't explode, or you give a lame reason for how the gravity works on a square planet, you break the spell. The reader will toss your novel aside and never return. You broke a trust, a trust that is sacred between author and reader.

There are so few Sacred Trusts left in the world, so you can imagine my state when a Neuropsychologist showed that this wasn't true. The Suspension of Disbelief wasn't how we did things at all. 

Kurt Vonnegut - The Short Story

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.



"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is doing

Ray Bradbury 12 Tips and How to Save the World

Ray Bradbury was a hero of mine. His attitude toward life and his art centered my misgivings and neuroses more times than I can remember. When he died in 2012  the world was a little darker and it hasn't recaptured that light.

Steven King on Writing

1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience.“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”


2. Don’t use passive voice. “Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe.”


3. Avoid adverbs. “The adverb is not your friend.”


4. Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said.”

Solar Summer 2015

Solar flares are bursts of high-energy radiation that cannot get through Earth's atmosphere to affect people on the ground. However, extremely powerful flares can have impacts higher up, triggering temporary radio blackouts and radiation storms that could endanger orbiting astronauts.

Flares are often accompanied by explosions of superheated solar plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Potent CMEs that hit Earth can spawn geomagnetic storms powerful enough to disrupt radio signals, GPS communications and power grids. CMEs also often supercharge the beautiful auroral displays known as the northern and southern lights.

http://www.space.com/28799-biggest-solar-flares-2015-sun-photos.html

Stephen Hawking believes he’s solved a huge mystery about black holes

On Tuesday, famed physicist Stephen Hawking presented new theories on black holes to a crowd of esteemed scientists and members of the media at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Hawking focused on something called the information paradox, which continues to puzzle scientists who study black holes. In a nutshell, the paradox surrounds the fact that information about the star that formed a black hole seems to be lost inside it, presumably disappearing when the black hole inevitably disappears. These things cannot be lost, according to General Relativity, and physicists generally believe that they aren't really lost. But where does the information go when the black hole that's absorbed it goes kaput?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/25/stephen-hawking-believes-hes-solved-a-huge-mystery-about-black-holes/

Nightmare Death

Night Terror AXIS I: 307.46

The rare sleep disorder goes by many names: night terrors, sleep terrors, pavor nocturnus, or AXIS I: 307.46 (The DSM’s code). It remains a medical mystery. What medical researchers do know is that night terrors are caused by an over-arousal of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. In children, this may be the result of the CNS still maturing — it has long been believed that the CNS’s maturation process ends in early childhood (although several recent studies suggest it may continue to develop through around age 25).

Medical Experts Seek Clues to 'Nightmare Deaths' That Strike Male Asian Refugees

January 11, 1987|LARRY DOYLE | United Press International

Since April, 1983

...at least 130 Southeast Asian refugees have left this world in essentially the same way. They cried out in their sleep. And then they died.

Medical authorities call this Asian Death Syndrome. The refugees have various names for it, one of them being Night Terror.

September is Rising Marketing New Titles?

Marketing for authors is a larger job than most realize. In this post I've gathered some decent articles to get you up to speed and to offer insights you may not have considered.

Sandra Bland, A Different Perspective

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UPDATE: The REPORT released is not from the Original Autopsy - but the one that was put out from the Second Autopsy done the following day -- On July 14th... not the 13th. So the Conclusions I reached in this post are false. Time lines will need to be addressed to the Original Autopsy which they have not released. Also, the Medical Examiners "Time of Death" continues not to be published. 

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Events that morning with Sandra Bland

1. Bland apparently refused a breakfast tray about 6:30 Monday morning, according to the Sheriff's Office.
2. When a guard checked on the prisoner a half-hour later, Bland reportedly said, "I'm fine," according to the Sheriff's Office.
3. At 8 a.m., Bland apparently asked to make a phone call from her cell, the Sheriff's Office said. There is no record of her making a call.
4. Bland was found at 9 a.m., hanging in her cell, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Making War Real

Atrocity propaganda is a term referring to the spreading of deliberate fabrications or exaggerations about the crimes committed by an enemy, constituting a form of psychological warfare.

Similarly to propaganda, atrocity rumors detailing exaggerated or invented crimes perpetrated by enemies are also circulated to vilify the opposing side.

Retro Fonts for Noir

Get inspired by the spirit of past decades and transport your designs back in time with this compilation of retro fonts that will cost you nothing!

Here is a great selection of free fonts in vintage or retro styles. The aim of a retro design is to transport the audience to the past, so it's important to choose typography that reflects the era that you're representing. There are hundreds of free typeface collections available online, ranging from the hip and happening to the cheap and cheesy. We've selected our favourite ones so you don't have to spend time searching - here are some awesome zero-cost designs...

So, let's look at some Noir - Retro Fonts