Category: The Writer’s Craft
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The Purpose of Violence in James Clavell’s Shogun
James Clavell depicts a Japan gripped in the throes of an uneasy interregnum. Ambitious lords scheme to discredit and destroy each other, forcing their rivals to break the peace of the deceased Taiko or to commit seppuku. The Portuguese plot to retain monopoly on the Japan-China trade, while the Jesuits seek to convert all of…
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A Culture Fractured
The old magic is gone. There won’t be another Lord of the Rings. Nor will there be another Narnia, Conan, Shadow, Zorro, or any other cultural icon that will bring a culture together. The ones still in existence have been parasitized by corporate interests, transformed into one part soulless cash cow, one part propaganda machine.…
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Into 2024, and Beyond
2024 was a rough year. You might have divined as much from the sudden drop in output over the past half-year. Real Life circumstances have conspired to force a sea change in every aspect of my life. With so much more to handle than ever before, my writing time has been reduced by half. Or…
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Writing the Prepared Professional
The operator is preparing for battle. He will face a team of elite commandos, armed to the teeth, hell-bent on hunting him down. They have the advantage in numbers, firepower, technology. The only way for him to survive is to do unto them before they do unto him. He has chosen the time and place…
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Three Storytellers, Two Listeners, One Story
In his essay ‘The Counterfactual Dialectic’ in Pulp on Pulp, Misha Burnett discusses the use of dialectic to determine what is said to the reader, how it is said, and what the reader will take away from it. I loved the concept so much, I used it for my own work Diary of A Bomoh—with…