Accomplished Today (So far): One 650 word anime review article for publication in Otaku USA magazine, submitted prior to deadline. I prefer to get my work turned in early, when I can. I also spent a good chunk of time editing podcasts.

Writing Relevant Article: The Best Shots Fired in the Oxford Comma Wars, by Arika Okrent. Even though I studied linguistics in the course of pursuing my English undergraduate degree, my understanding of the anatomy of the English language is still largely subconscious and intuitive. I make grammar and syntax choices because they “feel correct” or because they have a pleasing visual quality. I suspect this makes me a butcher of the English language.

Accomplished Today (So Far): One page via electric typewriter; one page via manual typewriter; one set of interview questions; one podcast recorded. I wrote about a magical city filled with strange, intelligent animals and a mad scientist who invented a device to converse with giant squid.

Mood: Determined. My Hermes Rocket manual typewriter is fixed and ready to serve. I’ve got a set of magazine deadlines and numerous other projects to attack. It’s good to have goals.

Reading Assignment: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition) by Seamus Heaney. Not to be confused with the terrible CGI movie, or the terrible live-action film, or the other terrible made-by-the-Asylum knock-off live-action film, or the wicked awesome live-action science fiction reinterpretation starring Christopher Lambert and a chainsaw sword.

Writing Relevant Article: What Writer’s Block and Stage Fright Have in Common, by Mark McGuinness. I’d argue they’re basically identical phenomena. Every day I have to psyche myself up, because I’m terrified that what I write will be terrible. Once I start writing, though, the momentum of the action carries me through. (The writing is still terrible, though.)

I love working on a typewriter. This passion began as an experiment, an excuse to visit the public library and use their communal equipment. Now I own a Brother ML-100 electric typewriter, a Royal Safari manual typewriter that I purchased for $15 off of eBay, and a Hermes Rocket manual typewriter that my aunt Mary was good enough to send to me free of charge.

Unfortunately, all is not quiet on the typewriter front. While the manual machines provide me with the most visceral typing pleasure, the Safari has a bent carriage return that causes it to intermittently skip spaces, and the Rocket has a ‘w’ key that sticks. The former problem apparently cannot be repaired. Whether anything can be done about the latter remains to be seen. These are well-engineered, precision pieces of equipment. Each one works remarkably well considering that both are over fifty years old. But the inability to replace worn out parts can render even a minor problem fatal to these beautiful, clattering contraptions.

My friends have mocked me mercilessly for this love affair with an earlier technology, as if the personal computer came along and made every earlier writing tool obsolete. I don’t understand the antagonism. If the goal is writing, it shouldn’t matter how the writing is accomplished. It’s not like I’m one of those vinyl record snobs that refuses to listen to an MP3; I use whatever tool is necessary to get the job done, and sometimes that’s a typewriter.

Writing Relevant Article: The joy of a simpler type of writing, by C.W. Gusewelle. Maybe this will help the nay-sayers understand…

It’s been an eternity since I last updated this site. I wrestled with what to do with this page, uncertain if I wanted to continue the Silicon Chickens podcast or not. I’ve decided to release additional episodes, but in the mean time, I’m going to convert this website into my official author’s webpage.

The plan is to update daily with journal entries, excerpts, samples, doodles, and other tidbits in order to give the readers a glimpse into my experience of the trials and tribulations of an unemployed bum a full-time writer. So let’s begin, shall we?
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