Swords Against Boredom

Some writers like to post excerpts from works-in-progress on their blogs. I’m not one of them.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the practice, and I’m not knocking anyone. I can see how it could possibly generate good feedback, and I can see how a writer might benefit from reactions to an excerpt.

But I rarely show a work-in-progress to anyone, even my lovely writerly wife.

Why? Read more »

– Steve

Along with stories, Ty plans to add background materials and more. There’s a good amount of material already there, which I haven’t sorted out yet. But I will.

This should be good.

– Steve

P.S. If you’ve checked in here today to see how I did in surgery, the answer is there was no surgery. The surgeon delayed me until June 4 because she had a schedule conflict. Argh.

– S

People ask where writers get their ideas …

Well, here’s one bit of inspiration. Check out this from the Associated Press:

CHICAGO (AP) — Coming soon: Brood XIII. It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it’s actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.

The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don’t bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.

Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating.

They don’t harm humans, although they are clumsy and might fly into people. Birds, squirrels and pets, especially dogs, love to eat them, and they are high in protein.

“They’re going to have quite a meal. It’s going to be like Thanksgiving for them,” said Tom Tiddens, supervisor for plant health care at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Now, doesn’t that get your science fiction or fantasy wheels spinning?

Imagine a sword-and-sorcery beastie horde that behaves this way, maybe sleeping for centuries and then awakening all over the globe…

Or, what if humans in the far future had to adopt a similar survival strategy…

Or, suppose the souls of the dead aren’t gone to some afterlife, but instead are just dormant for who knows how long. Then, they all wake up at once…

If you’re weird enough, great story ideas happen all around you all the time.

– Steve

– Steve

Here in Ohio we have schools closing left and right, jobs melting away into nothingness, some serious issues with foster care and we’re still not sure how many millions of dollars were stolen from taxpayers — so our government is swinging into action.

To wit: We just passed a bill to make sure guys can’t tuck dollar bills into a stripper’s G-string.

Is it just me, or is this seriously warped?

I don’t go to strip clubs. I’ve never paid for a lap dance. But why in hell do I care if someone else wants to do those things? If some hottie can make money flashing her boobs in some guy’s face, more power to her. If some poor wretch wants to toss his money away on a few minutes of fantasy, why shouldn’t he be able to do that?

For crying out loud …

– Steve

I see that Swords Against Boredom is one year old today …

Well, the blog’s a year old anyway. I didn’t add the nifty Swords Against Boredom title until Nov. 13, 2006.

It’s been fun so far. I’ve enjoyed the arguments, the discussions, the chance to hook up with old friends, the getting to know new friends, networking with other writers and the feedback from people who’ve read my fiction.

I never really expected blogging to be so much fun. I figured I’d just post a few updates about my fiction, perhaps answer the odd question or two about how Hissu’s groovy spear/blowgun could possibly work — you know, stuff like that. But we’ve had that plus Godzilla, religion, science, general weirdness and much, much more within the 1,803 comments from all of you.

So thanks, dear readers, for a good year!

– Steve