I pride myself on being able to write anywhere, anytime, no matter how (BANG!) Have you ever noticed how distracting it can be to (BANG!) Every time we’ve had a thaw this winter, we’ve had leaks in our (BANG!) One of the joys of living in old houses is (BANG!) Shingles. They’re not just a …
Margaret Atwood (in)famously referred to science fiction as “talking squids in outer space,” a remark to which I would take great umbrage if not for the fact that my DAW novel Lost in Translation contains a character, Karak, master of the Guild of Translators, described thusly: Free of the watersuit and its exoskeleton, his shape was nothing …
While looking for something entirely different in my computer files (The Mixed-Up Files of Edward C. Willett, which would be a great title for a book if someone hadn’t already kind of gotten there first), I came across this audio recording from a couple of years ago, when my daughter was seven. Ladies and gentlemen, …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/02/The-Thinking-Cap.mp3[/podcast] You know, it’s not easy being a writer. Oh, I know, it doesn’t rank up there with, say, coal miner in physical difficulty or neurosurgeon in mental difficulty, but where it probably has it over both of them is in creative difficulty: the pressure to constantly come up with something new. Heck, as a …
Those who have followed my occasional series “The First Sentence I Wrote Today,” a.k.a. on Twitter as TFSIWT, will know that I have been working, interminably, on a young adult fantasy novel called Blue Fire. I’ve written it. I’ve re-written it. I’ve re-re-written it. It first came in at a ridiculous length, so I chopped …
Well, that was fun. By “that,” I mean the process of getting this new computer up and running to my satisfaction. Yes, the new monitor arrived last week, and I spent a few happy (well, mostly happy) hours with plug-ins and cables and drives (oh, my!), losing hours of productivity in order to get a …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/02/Blue-Cheese.mp3[/podcast] I love blue cheese. It hasn’t always been so. As a child, I was of course immersed in the done-to-death running gags of the cartoon world, where smelly cheese (always Limburger, for some reason) seemed to be thought of as a sure-fire laugh riot. Outside of the cartoon world, I simply wasn’t exposed to …
A nice new review of Song of the Sword in the important School Library Journal. After a very nice synopsis, reviewer Michele Shaw says: “This is a fantasy of epic proportions, with the perfect blend of suspense; well-developed, likable characters; and a touch of sarcastic humor. Ariane and Wally find four shards and the hilt …
You may have seen this news item recently about how a toddler’s self-control at the age of three can predict his or her health and wealth once grown. This study has been running through my mind for a week because I have, I think, demonstrated a tremendous amount of self-control over the past few days, …
While setting up my video last week for the virtual classroom visits-by-authors I was part of, I had the urge to give my microphone a good test by singing. So I recorded one of my party pieces, “Me” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The result pleased me enough I decided to YouTube it…and here …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/01/Redefining-the-Kilogram.mp3[/podcast] This year marks the 220th anniversary of something that grew out of the French revolution and yet sparked a revolution in my own life, and the lives of many other Canadians of a certain age, two centuries later. I’m not talking about the guillotine, although it’s true I seem to vaguely remember a K-Tel …
…by not posting regularly this week as I did last, but although I was a bad little blogger, I was a good little writer. See, Twist of the Blade, the sequel to Song of the Sword, and the second book in my brand-new YA fantasy series Shards of Excalibur, is in the revision stage. And …
