Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

Science Fiction vs SciFi vs SF: what is the true definition?

If there’s one thing science fiction fans love, it’s an argument. And if there’s one argument they love more than all others, it’s the attempt to define what science fiction actually is, and what is or isn’t included in that definition. In perhaps the all time most fiercely contested fight over an acronym ever, fansContinue reading “Science Fiction vs SciFi vs SF: what is the true definition?”

Damo’s top scifi novels to rewire your consciousness.

The great psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna called scifi the “gateway drug to enlightenment”. It’s a description that perfectly expresses the role scifi has played in my life. If If see the world differently from many people today, it’s because of the scifi books I read from a young age. These are the scifi books thatContinue reading “Damo’s top scifi novels to rewire your consciousness.”

Retiring from social media to spend more time with my books

The problem with switching off the internet when you’re somebody who professionally writes stuff on the internet is…you see the problem there, right? Alcoholics often gravitate to heavy drinking workplaces, and people fascinated by human communication IE writers IE me and my kind are drawn to social media like cats ro catnip. I am fortunateContinue reading “Retiring from social media to spend more time with my books”

There’s a great gamer novel to be written. Ready Player One isn’t it

  There have been many great American novels. The Grapes of Wrath. The Great Gatsby. Underworld. The idea, at this point in literary history, has become a kind of self referential in joke. The great American novel is what young, over-intense MFA students yearn to write. But it’s still useful as an indicator of whatContinue reading “There’s a great gamer novel to be written. Ready Player One isn’t it”

5 things that can go HORRIBLY wrong adapting The Culture

I don’t consider myself a true fan of many things, but I am an unapologetic Iain (M) Banks fanboy. Which is an easy thing to be. Banks is a brilliant, brilliant writer. A storyteller in the class of Neil Gaiman, with the muscular prose abilities of J G Ballard, and the conceptual imagination of anContinue reading “5 things that can go HORRIBLY wrong adapting The Culture”

The shattered realities of William Gibson

Subscribe FREE on YouTube to get every episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTLDbr7fXm6Rh17OFIAEeDg To get the most from the episode, read Count Zero by William Gibson http://amzn.to/2Dbr8o9 Read the essay and get my annotations here https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-have-toffee-16453880 Ambient background music by UUriter track Homeland Cassette http://amzn.to/2FPCvnC Join my full course in the Rhetoric of Story (use code STORYFREE) https://www.udemy.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/learn/v4/?couponCode=STORYTEN

After Patreon: we need a Bill of Rights for creators

We live in amazing times for human creativity. There are more opportunities, for more people, of more backgrounds, to create than ever before. I think when we look back on the early 21st century, we’ll recognise it as the turning point into a creator culture, in which we value people for their creative talents, overContinue reading “After Patreon: we need a Bill of Rights for creators”

A sad truth. Readers will always steal from writers.

This is a little story about volition. Specifically, the choices writers make about how we share and “monetize” our work. It’s a sad little tale, but please read to the end for the moral. “there’s an extra irony here, that these were writers, who no doubt stomp around the internet chanting Pay The Writer wheneverContinue reading “A sad truth. Readers will always steal from writers.”