Archive

  • A God Walks Up to the Bar – Excerpt Pt. 2

    This is the second half of my short story excerpt from A God Walks Up to the Bar. Go here to view the first half. — I walked into a scene right out of a 1930s gangster movie. Five men sat around a table playing cards, cigarette smoke hovering over them like angry clouds. The… Read more

  • A God Walks up to the Bar – Excerpt

    Well, I’ve talked a lot about writing on this blog, but I’ve never actually posted any of my work yet. I thought today that I would post an excerpt from my first-ever published book, A God Walks Up to the Bar. It’s an anthology of five short stories, connected by a framing story, that details… Read more

  • Every Story Has Its End … Hopefully

    What makes a story a story? What’s the fundamental element that every story has in common, regardless of genre, author, era, or medium? What is something that every, absolutely every, story must have in order to be a complete and whole narrative? The answer: It ends. “Oh, well done, Jake,” you might be thinking. “Congratulations,… Read more

  • The Ups and the Downs: Thoughts on Emotions and Decision-Making

    The Ups and the Downs: Thoughts on Emotions and Decision-Making

    Funny thing, emotions. In the grips of an emotional high, we feel invincibility and never-ending optimism. Any choice we make is a good one and can only yield good things. And then, with a snap of the fingers and a blink of the eye, we plummet into the doldrums. Everything is wrong, and what can… Read more

  • Give and Take: Developing Characters with Banter

    Give and Take: Developing Characters with Banter

    So, in my last post I went on a bit of a rant about how I dislike how much quip humor is overused in today’s media. So, maybe you’re wondering what kind of comedic writing I do like. Well, lucky you! That’s what I’m here to talk about today. In all seriousness, comedy is a… Read more

  • Overused and Old Hat: Why I’m No Longer a Fan of Quipping

    Overused and Old Hat: Why I’m No Longer a Fan of Quipping

    We live in an age of quips. Quipping has gripped modern entertainment. Quick, glib, clever one-liners are all the rage nowadays. You see it in blockbuster movies, television, comic books, and general writing. Pithy turns of phrase to sum up a situation, shove humor into it, or just to show off how clever the writer… Read more