grin and bare it
A blog by Matthew Dicks
Is there an aesthetic to the written word?
Bonnie Trenga, guest-writing for the Grammar Girl podcast, recently asserted that the standalone use of a “which” clause is acceptable when the author attempts to slow things down and create emphasis. The example she provides…
Read MoreSkipping his best material
And while I’m on the subject of the Dylan concert, can I also add that I did not appreciate John Mellencamp’s set list, which did not include Jack and Diane, ROCK in the USA and…
Read MoreInaccessible and annoying
My wife and I went to see Bob Dylan for our anniversary a couple of nights ago. As he stepped on stage, a booming voice declared him “the great American storyteller,” among many other praiseworthy…
Read MoreTechnology and my beginnings as a writer
It’s hard to remember a time when the internet didn’t exist, but for people my age, members of Generation X, I often think that we grew up at the perfect moment in human history. As…
Read MoreIn stores at last!
What a day. Something Missing hit the bookstores today, the fruition of a lifelong ambition of mine. It’s not often that a person has the opportunity to realize a dream that he or she has had…
Read MoreLeast favorite words
The Guardian reported on words most hated by a selection of English poets. These included redacted, pulchritude, and appall. My wife’s least favorite word is moist. It literally grosses her out to say the word…
Read MoreOne day to go…
Something Missing was reviewed by the Free Lance Star in Fredericksburg, VA, today, and in glowing terms, and more than 75% of the readers in Amazon’s Vine program have given the book four or five stars.…
Read More“Something Missing” in the Boston Globe!
It’s just two days from the release of Something Missing, and this morning the book received favorable mention in Jan Gardner’s Shelf Life column in the Boston Globe. Having grown up in Massachusetts, just thirty…
Read MoreGuest review of SOMETHING MISSING
A big thank you to Alan Bradley, author of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, who was kind enough to write a guest review for Something Missing for Amazon. His book is quite…
Read MoreStar Trek: Coincidentally flawed
In 1982 I wrote a letter to Steven Spielberg suggesting he hire me as the Common Sense Director for his movies. I explained that my role would be to point out the silly, avoidable flaws…
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