Features

I grew up reading the likes of Uncanny Xmen, Incredible Hulk and disturbingly, Watchmen, among scores of other super hero titles. For better or worse, those comic books help shape much of my personality and imagination.

Spending six years contracting for the Department of Education, I repeatedly ran into educator innovators, centering student learning on comic books. See Columbia’s Comic Book Project for an example.

Reading comics, I absorbed massive amounts of knowledge: the basics of quantum physics, chemistry, astrology–naturally my vocabulary and word usage was improved. To boot, comic stories were my only source of highly creative drama […]

I’ve read Writer’s Digest for years. As a teenager I used to pour over its articles about how to write query letters and dream of having novels published. Then as an adult I would dutifully study the advice in the magazine about how to get published. Although I find no fault with the advice provided by the magazine. It is honestly provided by industry experts, but everything in the October 2010 issue was decidedly discouraging from the point of view of a fantasy writer.

Writer’s Digest did not intend this, but the fact was painfully obvious in the article “The […]

The playing field of publishing has tilted, but it hasn’t leveled by any means. The vast majority of books sold still involve the cutting down of a tree and the passing through of some very tiny gates. But it is has tilted, and if you step back, and make a little director’s square with your hands, you’ll see that it is skewed in favor of those who understand the digital world.

There is no doubt that some of the Big Six (BS) will alter course to swing their mammoth tankers towards the unchartered waters of the social consumer. Others will […]

To be an author is to get paid for writing. I’ve heard this often enough that I’ve become quite comfortable with not being an author. Instead, I am someone who makes up stories and gives them away for free on the internet. I have always wanted to do this, but until the past year or so, it was not a serious option. Now, thanks to the emergent convergence of e-books and e-readers and iPads and iPhones and Androids and all the other great stuff coming out, it is not only an option, but the perfect one for me.

I’ve put […]

I have a daughter.  Last night we were playing around with the site GirlSense.com.  On the site you can design different fashions and accessories, as well as buy the fashion creations of other users.  I’ve seen other avatar makers in the past, but the amount of detail you can do on these clothes, bags, shoes, etc. is pretty amazing.

And it occurred to me that this will be the future of fashion.  Visions of the future often put people in identical silver jumpsuits, as if we’ve “gotten over” our obsession with outward appearances.  But fashion is a creative pursuit.  […]

Some people blow through a book in a day or two, while others take a couple of weeks or more. Many people just inhale them like a sweet breeze, one after the other, without stopping in between. I’m worse than that — I just forget the endings of books I enjoy. (Truth is, I don’t even finish books I don’t love.) To most avid readers, books are not only an unquestionable right, but they are taken for granted as a vital component of life.

It’s like when the tourists cruise through the Sistine Chapel, look up and say, “Look honey, […]