Category Archives: Blog

Blog entries from Bryan about life, the universe, and everything.

I Wrote the Book I Want to Read – What about a Book that Will Sell?

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Turtle Reading

I’ve been working on my first novel, a SciFi book about a PI who gets dragged into something much bigger than he thought. All he wants is to drink his strained-algae coffee, but it turns out he’s going to have to save the world. It’s called The Mason Truman Project, and I’ve blogged about it several times. I finished the book early last spring, and I’ve been working on refining it off an on since , while I also worked on the second book in the series. I started shopping it out in June, resulting in another raft of fine Continue Reading →

Work In Progress Blog Hop: The Next Big Thing!

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W.I.P. Blog Hop!

So there’s this thing called a blog hop, sort of an informal ring of unrelated sites posting on a related theme. In this case, the blog hop is for writers and the theme is our work-in-progress, meaning the book we’re writing. I found out about it from Diane Carlisle. As I understand it, the rules are simple: • Answer the ten questions (see below) about your current W.I.P. (Work In Progress) on your blog. • Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

What’s Up with All the Cheating on U.S. Top Gear?

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Cheating, Next Exit

Have you watched Top Gear? There’s two versions—the original is a BBC show featuring three brits as hosts, but the History Channel (of all networks) is broadcasting a U.S. version based on the original with three American hosts. I really enjoy both shows, but there’s something bugging me about the U.S. one, namely: what’s with all the cheating? In case you’re not familiar with the franchise(s), Top Gear is a show about cars. Three men do mostly manly things with, to, and in cars. They race them, they destroy them, and they test them. They praise the good and lament Continue Reading →

Life Is…Getting Older

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Life Is...Getting Older

I got a notification from GoodReads the other day. It was an update letting me know that one of the authors I had tagged—George R.R. Martin in this case—had new blog posts I might like. Here, let me show you what I saw: Talk about accidental poignancy! Two unrelated blog posts listed in reverse order, and they say, “Life Is…Getting Older.” Boy, truer words were ne’er spake. Then last night, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. During that chat, she asked me if I thought it was true that we undergo major transformations every ten years, Continue Reading →

Civility & Discourse

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An actual email I received

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. The biggest thing has been the rollout of a new site design and engine at The Mac Observer. Dave Hamilton, Adam Christianson, and Eddie Machado of outside design firm Themble did an amazing job of bringing The Mac Observer into the present. We also brought back the TMO Spin, a vehicle for our news guys to add perspective, context, and opinion to our news coverage separate from writing up the straight new itself. In that the thing that most interests me in my day job is the analysis side Continue Reading →

Scatter Shot: Quadrophenia, Stormdancer, GoodReads

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I haven’t made a post in a few days, mainly because I didn’t have a lot to specifically say. As I was trying to think of what to write about, I realized I should rip off John Martellaro, my friend and colleague at The Mac Observer. He does something called Particle Debris, a weekly column where he throws in whatever he came across throughout the week that didn’t warrant a standalone article. I think I’ll call mine…Scatter Shot. That’ll do for now, at least. I can’t promise to do it weekly, but periodically seems doable. Quadrophenia on Blu-ray by Criterion Continue Reading →

MacNotables Interview Posted

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Mic

The awesome and fantastic Chuck Joiner of MacJury, MacNotables, and MacTV was kind enough to invite me on to an episode of MacNotables. He wanted my thoughts on the Apple-Samsung patent infringement battle, and I’ll be honest, I kind of went a little foamy at the mouth. Listen in! Image credit: Shutterstock

Partially Stoked!

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The title is a lie, because I am totally stoked! On Monday morning, I got my first request for a partial! That’s publishing speak for when an author is asked to provide anything less than a full manuscript to an agent or publishing editor, and it’s the first possible step towards getting an agent. Here’s what I sent him: How can this not get me representation, right?! It’s illustrated! Here’s how it works. An aspiring author—that’s me—sends a query letter to an agent. As mentioned in previous posts, I began sending out query letters about six weeks ago. This is Continue Reading →

The Agony of the Synopsis, or How Not to Write a Synopsis

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The Mason Truman Project - Synopsis

I’ve been pretty busy for the last few weeks, starting with sending out a new round of query letters. I’ve found five really kick ass agents to start with, with four queries still out there. With any luck, one of them will request a partial or the full manuscript, and I am hopeful. Interestingly, the third agent I queried effectively wanted everything an agent might want: a query letter, a synopsis, the first three chapters, and a separate bio. Note that a query letter typically has a very short synopsis/description along with a short bio included, so there’s a little Continue Reading →

Rejection Letter #1!

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Boys Have Cooties!

Well, I’m no longer a virgin—I have received my first official rejection letter. She was nice about it, and everything; we aren’t a good fit. Plus, I evidently have cooties (see below). And with that, I can now probably call myself a real writer. I have joined the hallowed ranks of, well…every would-be writer who has been told no. As I blogged last week, this was my first query letter to an agent. Getting an agent is a long slog, and I’m moving on to the next set of query letters this week. Wish me luck! Image made with additional Continue Reading →