The Blog

Film Noir and Masculinity In Crisis

I’ve got ADHD and approach life a little sideways. This isn’t something I have a lot of control over. Sometimes, that’s a negative, sometimes it helps me see things that maybe not everyone else sees. I think this is why I really appreciate some of the marginalized genres that don’t get a lot of mainstream…
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Protected: The Nicest Possible Declined Message

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

The Bent Constable is now live!

Last Friday, I had an idea for a short story that takes place in the first third of the novel about Clay’s first investigation, I wrote it up over the weekend, and I made the story available today for people on the Golem Mailing List. It’s about how Clay Golem is caught between the mob…
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New Clay Golem Short Story Coming Soon!

UPDATE: I finished writing the story, which I’m calling “The Bent Constable.” It’s a novelette of just over 10k words. It’s more intricate and dark than expected, but was a lot of fun to write, and it came together really quickly. I hope to have it ready to send out to the Golem Mailing List…
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Revenge Story Checklist

Overview I culled these insights from David Fincher’s documentary series about filmmaking and storytelling, VOIR, on Netflix. This episode is called The Ethics of Revenge by Tony Zhou, whom I knew from his YouTube channel, Every Frame A Painting. Revenge stories are about Wild Justice, what would happen if we took Justice into our own…
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Researching Monsters and THE BLUE GOLEM

I’ve been hammered by Resistance this week as I rewrite my golem detective prologue for the Nth time, trying to capture the essence of the book as quickly and as powerfully as I can. It’s been like sculpting marble, and the closer I get, the harder it gets. But I found a secret weapon yesterday,…
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Triple Monitors

This is my writing setup.

Damaged Goods–My QUANTUM OF SOLACE Review from 2008

I once waxed rhapsodic about QUANTUM OF SOLACE, the 2008 James Bond sequel to CASINO ROYALE, that I went on for about 4k words. In retrospect, my enthusiasm was based, frankly, more on the premise of the film than on the actual product on the screen, but I really like what they were trying to…
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TBG: The Chapter Titles Are Set

It’s been a long, long road, but THE BLUE GOLEM is coming together. Today, I can announce the final chapter titles are set. I’ve nearly finished my page one rewrite, and will turn in the final rewritten chapters by July 20th. After that, I’ll immediately do a quick scrub of the book for the twelfth…
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