Origin by JA Konrath I’ve enjoyed JA Konrath’s writing for a while.  I read his blog whenever it updates, and I even downloaded his non-fiction ebook of collected essays on writing, The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, for my Kindle and read a few entries a day.

One particular entry grabbed my attention more than others.  In it, Konrath talked about the process behind writing a high-concept technothriller called Origin in which scientists had found Satan and imprisoned him in an underground lab for study.  The novel never made it through the gatekeepers for one reason or another, and eventually, Konrath released it himself as an ebook.

The premise really interested me because I love a good technothriller, but I’m pretty tired of the DaVinci Code clones and their religious artifacts and conspiracy theories.  Even though Origin deals with a “religious artifact,” Satan himself a little unique than a piece of Noah’s Ark or Jesus’ genealogy.

And because I intended to read his fiction but never had, I figured Origin hit my genre tastes a little closer than crime fiction.  So I tossed my $3 to Amazon, and downloaded Origin to my Kindle.

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Short Stories I love short stories.  They’re hard to write, but when done well, their effect can be far more powerful than a longer form.  It takes a lot of careful wording and plotting to be able to make a short story, and since the second half of my summer’s goal has been to write a few shorts, I have been reading a few, too.

Three stories in particular have grabbed my attention for good and bad, and I thought I would take this opportunity to share them with  you guys.

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A Quick Jaunt in Star Wars Galaxies

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Syp’s first The Game Archaeologist column about Star Wars Galaxies intrigued me.  I played the game from the time it was in Beta 3 all the way until World of Warcraft was released in November 2004.  I loved it.  I quit because of the combination of the New Game Enhancements (NGE) and WoW being so [...]

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Writing My Novel: 7 Ways Reading Makes Better Writing

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The first day of a composition class, I ask my students a simple question:  “Who in here likes to read?” I consider the inquiry a success if I have two people raise their hands.  Most of the time all I get are a few sneers, blank stares, and no hands in the air. I ask [...]

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Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”: This Decade’s Existential Benchmark

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The moment Inception starts, the viewer has to think about what he or she is watching, to experience the plot in a way few movies ask us to. That engagement does not stop during the film, nor does it necessarily cease when the credits roll. For the first time in years, Inception presents theater-goers with [...]

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Writing My Novel: Kill Kill Kill

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One of the major philosophies of fiction writing is called “kill your darlings.”  In it, anything is fair game when it comes to editing.  No matter how much the writer loves a sentence or word or scene or even character, if it does not advance the plot in a tangible way, it must be cut.  [...]

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What Makes Great Literature?

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Recently, the idea of why one reads has been a discussion in our household.  And it turns out that my wife and I read for entirely different reasons.  We look for something completely different in literature, and because of that, I don’t think either of us really gets the whole experience. She reads for the [...]

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Writing My Novel: Keep On Writing

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When I finished my novel’s first draft, I knew two things could happen: I could take a break and revel in the success of finally writing a book while I enjoy the summertime a little. I could jump immediately back into writing, using what I learned while writing my novel to produce some quality stories [...]

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