grin and bare it
A blog by Matthew Dicks
Twitter friends
I recently told someone that over the past several months, I have made several friends through Twitter, even though many of us have never met in person. “Friends through 140 characters?” this person asked dubiously. …
Read MoreA change in style
I contacted my editor last week, inquiring about the current view in the publishing world on the number of spaces after a mark of punctuation. Like The Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, and…
Read MoreFive year plan?
I played golf last week with a guy who works in the corporate world. He’s got a degree in math and an MBA, but he also has a newborn son at home and wants to…
Read MoreWell-timed and welcomed!
It’s after midnight. It’s still incredibly hot and humid, even though I’m on the Connecticut shoreline, and the sun has been down for hours. I’ve just finished loading two tons of DJ equipment into the…
Read MoreUncomfortable plot summaries
From postmodernbarney.com comes a list of Uncomfortable Plot Summaries—deconstructed and amusing summaries of film plots. Here are a few of my favorites from a lengthy list: BATMAN: Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill. BEAUTY AND…
Read MoreSubconscious naming of characters
Have I told the story of Martin’s name before? Martin is the protagonist in Something Missing, and my choice of his name has an interesting story behind it. As I was writing the book, I…
Read MoreReal-life burglars
I read this article on burglary and immediately thought of Martin. In terms of the thirteen secrets that these professional burglars share, Martin follows four of them. #3, 5, 9 and 10. A bunch of…
Read MoreInstant communication
USA Today did a piece on authors using Twitter to communicate with their readers, something I have been doing for quite some time, and while the 140-character limit can be frustrating for someone who normally…
Read MoreCome chat with me
I started a two week chat on Library Thing for anyone interested in participating.
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