Just another writer

  • Beautiful Sentences: Tom McAllister

    I’m not sure what obituaries are for. You can tell people’s stories, but nothing you do is complete or accurate. It’s just a list of people they used to know and jobs they used to do. We spend so much time trying to be effective mourners, but we have no idea how to do it.…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Lydia Kiesling

    Why did I have a child? To have a child is to court loss. Lydia Kiesling, The Golden State.  

  • Writerly resolutions: June status

    The novel gained a net of nearly 10,000 words this month, which is a vast improvement over previous months. Doing the 1,000 words of summer thing helped a fair amount even if, during the two weeks of that challenge, I only hit the 1,000 word target a few times. Not much progress on the new story,…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Tom McAllister

    Shell-shocked acquaintances will say without irony that he had so much to live for, ignorant of the fact that the prospect of having to live like this for another fifty years was not the solution to but rather the cause of his hopelessness. Tom McAllister, How to Be Safe.

  • 550 KRE The Basics of Earth Science

    When I was in high school, earth science was the class that was taken by the kids who didn’t really want to learn science., much like the stereotypical intro to geology in college which gets dubbed “Rocks for Jocks.” As someone who was a science nerd in his youth, I of course, didn’t take earth science…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Bennet Sims

    What if he is her paramour from the past tense, cuckolding me from her unconscious, such that her body will break up with me in undeath, leaving our apartment for him? Bennett Sims, A Questionable Shape.

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 540 NEW The New Chemistry

    Continuing through the 500s and science, I get to chemistry. In high school, I was a chemistry wiz. I took two years of chemistry, acing both years, but somehow between the end of high school and the beginning of college, I managed to persuade myself that I wasn’t good at chemistry and I barely passed…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Genevieve Valentine

    Of course, like most unkind advice, it was correct, eventually, somehow. Genevieve Valentine, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti.

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 530 FEY The Character of Physical Law

    When I was a college student, I read Feynman’s autobiography, Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman. It was a breezy fun read (and I was young and dumb enough not to notice the misogyny and other problematic aspects of Feynman’s personal life). Feynman has a reputation for presenting challenging topics in an accessible way, so with that…