Writing About Vietnam (For Beginners)
After a quiet start to the year I’ve had two acceptances in quick succession. The first is a novelette to the excellent Interzone magazine, my third sale there.
After a quiet start to the year I’ve had two acceptances in quick succession. The first is a novelette to the excellent Interzone magazine, my third sale there.
While possessing very left-wing views on most matters, when it comes to writing I’m a downright fascist.
500 words a day. No exceptions. Ok – when I’m editing a long work, maybe that day is an exception. But otherwise, whether …
The Lego Movie has a heart of darkness.
Beneath its glossy façade and messages of friendship, individuality, and freedom, lies the abyss of moral hazard and societal decay. The Lego Movie is, at its core, a capitulation to the venal …
The perpetual outrage machine of twitter has been running hard against American Sniper. Now, while outrage on twitter is its default position, and therefore unsurprising, I found it curious that that a filmmaker as sophisticated as Clint Eastwood was …
Well, not that new, I guess. One of the stories – The Line – was the second I’d ever written. But I reworked and rewrote the damn thing over a year as I felt the central idea was worth pursuing …
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus were mass murderers.
This realisation came to me as I re-watched The Matrix recently. It’s still a fine film, no doubt, which stands the test of time. Slick, stylish, philosophically intriguing, with some fantastic set-piece action …
He goes by many aliases: Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas, Hagios Nikolas, Joulupukki, Nicholas of Myra, Sinterklaas. He’s the jolly bearded man bearing gifts; the herald of good will and joy; an icon for the young; an ally to the old …
Trying my hand at short stories was the single best decision I made when I started writing fiction.
A couple of years back I started a novel – like just about everyone else does when they decide to take up …
While cinema gets bigger every year: bigger budgets, bigger battles, bigger explosions, and a bigger box-office, the ideas and ambition of the medium steadily get smaller. The idea that cinema can be a transformative experience, the notion that movies can …