Browsing all posts in Asides.

8 Great Philosophical Questions We’ll Never Answer

This blog post on io9 is an awesome one: 8 Great Questions We’ll Never Solve. We’ll never answer them, but there is an existential imperative to keep asking them and to wrestle our own private angels (or demons) for an answer. If you’re an atheist, wrestle because you can prove the answer. Otherwise, wrestle because […]

Tesla Lives Here … And Edison Lives There (#1 In A Series)

Tesla Lives Here Edison Lives There Fluorescents, mercury vapor lamps, neon, modern. Alternating current More heat than light. Energy waster. So yesterday. Read The Tesla Bequest, now a Kindle ebook at at Amazon.

ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY! ICKY!

Lots of people just turn away when confronted with the reality of the icky-ness of what an obstetric fistula is. Totally gross. GET OVER IT! And help the 30,000 – 50,000 women who suffer from this EVERY YEAR. Read my last post, (Watch PBS, Help Fight Today’s Primitive Horror Against Women) then … DO IT […]

Watch PBS, Help Fight Today’s Primitive Horror Against Women

The horror of child brides extends far beyond stolen childhoods and includes horrendous injuries and death. As I’ve written recently on the web and in my book Die By Wire, it’s a primitive practice abandoned in the developed world, but perpetuated and justified today by cultural Islamists who insist that Islam’s founder deflowered a young […]

What Would The Prophet Protest Today?

Out of my own personal spiritual interest — and in then process of research for faith-driven thrillers like Die By Wire, Perfect Killer and Daughter of God — I have read the Qu’ran from beginning to end at least three times. If the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were alive today, his protest would […]

Think Like An Actor, Write Like God

Molly Ringwald wrote a very interesting piece recently for the New York Times: Act Like a Writer. “The appeal of diving into a character has always been the back story: everything that my character has been through up to the point when the audience first encounters her. I have eagerly invented intricate histories that I […]

S/he Who Doesn’t Dare Never Wins

We have no more giants in politics. Greatness has fled the national stage. We are a country of excuses and naysayers who ask “why?” instead of “why not?” “Who dares, wins” is not just an SAS motto, it’s a philosophy increasingly lost among the 50% of Americans who get government benefits and pay no taxes. […]

Killed four people this morning in Nassau, Bahamas.

A few blocks south of Bay Street. Near a ritzy private bank. My heroine was responsible for three of the mortalities. All very bad guys. She’s very good. Right now, her name is Petra Armstrong, but I am not fond of the name. (Abject apologies if that’s your name … no offense. Really!) If you […]

Coming soon: Be My Bookselling Partner, 50-50

I’m setting up a system for anyone who likes my books to be my equal partner … sell a book through Smashwords, make 50% of what I make. Smashwords system is a little complicated right now, so son William is doing some programming that will make it very, very easy for you. I’d like to […]

Broken Publishing’s Big Author Problem: Nobody Ever Runs Out Of Electrons

Branding expert David Vinjamuri has written an astonishingly intelligent piece in Forbes that nails just about all the most salient issues dividing indie and traditional publishing. No matter what side of this issue you’re on, you’ll be better informed after reading his piece: Publishing Is Broken, We’re Drowning In Indie Books – And That’s A […]