Professor Beej

The fall semester starts in just under a month.  I have maybe two full weeks before faculty conferences begin for the new year, which means that my wonderful summer of writing time is drawing to a close. That’s okay because I have far surpassed the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]