A World of Speculation

Seven basic plots

I’ve always wondered about the seven basic plots. John Leary lists and describes them here: 1. Man v (Wo)man 2. Man v Nature 3. Man v Environment 4. Man v Machine 5. Man v The Supernatural 6. Man v Self 7. Man v God The distinction between “nature”...

‘Anything, Mr. Frenkel’

Teresa Nielsen Hayden tells a great story on her blog, Making Light: It seems that Tor editor Jim Frenkel was approached at a convention by an attractive young lady, who said, “Golly, Mr. Frenkel, I’d do anything to be a published author.”...

Image?

This picture means that I’ve taken off the html training wheels and I’m riding my little blogger bicycle all the way to New York City by myself! The photo is of a fountain titled the Triumph of Good over Evil outside a cathedral off Broadway. I was on...

Like the new look?

If you notice anything different, it might be the color pallette here. I’ve been stretching my html skills and this site was a big help in visualizing the colors.

But at least he spelled your name right

It’s probably evidence of my bad character that this amuses me so (or maybe it’s the photo). “Deborah Schoeneman reports that Richard Ford spat on Colson Whitehead (The Intuitionist) at a Poets & Writers party, having nursed a grudge for two...

Blog of the Day

Thanks to Albert McIlhenny for naming this his Blog of the Day for March 15. Albert’s blog looks at issues of the day through the lens of what he calls the historical churches — “as defined in the traditional formularies of the Christian...