Our technologies have far outpaced our brains’ ability to keep up. (Even our eyesight cannot keep pace with all the screen time, and that’s why so many of us have vision issues. Our eyes don’t evolve that fast).  For the most part, we still have a stone-age brain, and it lags behind the dizzying advances of our technology. That’s why some concepts take a while to sink in. Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain … Continue reading →

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from a favorite author I’ve been a big admirer of Kelli Jae Baeli’s writing since I came across Also Known as: Armchair Detective, Book 1 of her AKA Investigations series. I thought I’d reviewed that as well as a couple of her other books, here, but, turns out, I hadn’t, so I’ll try to correct that lapse as soon as possible. Anyway, back to the book at hand, The Girls in the Band: Since encountering Jae’s writing over 7 years ago, more than a few things have impressed me about her work: … Continue reading →

Don't say anything. Don't make a comment. It will make you look bad. That's the usual advice in the publishing industry when someone posts a caustic review of your book, under the assumption that this is about some type of insecurity on the part of a writer

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from a favorite author I’ve been a big admirer of Kelli Jae Baeli’s writing since I came across Also Known as: Armchair Detective, Book 1 of her AKA Investigations series. I thought I’d reviewed that as well as a couple of her other books, here, but, turns out, I hadn’t, so I’ll try to correct that lapse as soon as possible. Anyway, back to the book at hand, The Girls in the Band: Since encountering Jae’s writing over 7 years ago, more than a few things have impressed me about her work: … Continue reading →

Something has to be done. If I see an autocorrect suggestion for my inevitable mangling of the word “because” again that offers: “barbecue” as a replacement, I think I will scream. Yes, my typing has become atrocious in recent years. Yes, I feel that autocorrect is a handy tool, overall. But dammit. Why “barbecue?” Autocorrect may be high-technology, but it doesn’t have an actual rational brain, does it? If it did, it would know that I DID NOT mean to say, “I couldn’t type correctly barbecue my fingers are getting old.” Why would I want to barbecue my fingers? (Except … Continue reading →

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from a favorite author I’ve been a big admirer of Kelli Jae Baeli’s writing since I came across Also Known as: Armchair Detective, Book 1 of her AKA Investigations series. I thought I’d reviewed that as well as a couple of her other books, here, but, turns out, I hadn’t, so I’ll try to correct that lapse as soon as possible. Anyway, back to the book at hand, The Girls in the Band: Since encountering Jae’s writing over 7 years ago, more than a few things have impressed me about her work: … Continue reading →

On one of those insipid questions sites, someone asked,  “If something happened to Earth, would you move to another planet?” A few underlying fallacies here. First, if something happened to Earth, you wouldn’t have that choice, so the whole construct of that question falls apart at the beginning. Second, this reasoning is like driving your car until it runs out of gas or breaks down, and then shopping for another one, instead of just maintaining the vehicle properly. Third, were we not dependent on fossil fuels, and did we not allow ignorance, greed, and zealotry in this world, we would … Continue reading →

What’s wrong with this sentence? “My only child was struck and killed by a car riding a bicycle home from the beach one afternoon in September.” (From Enon, by Paul Harding) So, there was this car riding a bicycle to the beach, see, and…. {Sigh}. And this book was published traditionally and by Random House, where I assume they have professional editors being paid the big bucks to catch things like that. I’m sure there are a million reasons why an editor could have missed that. Perhaps he had been up too late the night before, perhaps he sneezed and … Continue reading →

As a novelist, the primary part of my job is to solve problems. Among them are plot and character issues. How do I get a character out of a thorny predicament? How do I accomplish this in a way that not only makes sense, and isn’t a cop-out, but might be unexpected and successful? When you care about your craft, this particular skill inevitably gets honed after doing it for 35 years. This also means that veteran novelists have interesting and often useful ideas about how to solve other problems in the real world. I hope one day we will … Continue reading →

Our technologies have far outpaced our brains’ ability to keep up. (Even our eyesight cannot keep pace with all the screen time, and that’s why so many of us have vision issues. Our eyes don’t evolve that fast).  For the most part, we still have a stone-age brain, and it lags behind the dizzying advances of our technology. That’s why some concepts take a while to sink in. Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain … Continue reading →