Stephen Lawrence Brayton's Blog – November 2012 Archive (5)

“There is a great need for a sarcasm font.”

Why? Because of all those pesky ‘ly’ words we writers aren’t supposed to use, yet every other published author does. Come on, raise your hand if you’ve ever heard some author/agent/editor/writing guru pontificate on how writers should never, ever, ever, use adverbs, especially in dialogue tags. If you do, you risk rejection,…

I think for most people, their vocation or avocation usually derives from personal interest or enjoyment. A person enjoys helping children, so becomes a teacher. Somebody fascinated with ancient history studies to be an archeologist. If you grew up really wanting to solve people’s burning pee issue, then your earned your degree in urology.

For me, writing began because…

“I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.”

Actually, these days, I wish I could nap and still have plenty of daylight left when I finally awaken. Or, if I’m really enjoying the night, that it could last longer. Day’s light and night’s dark don’t last long enough to suit my purposes.

Anyway, that’s philosophizing for another…

It's a beautiful Firday morning and I don't even have to take my transporter to meet this week's guest. I can drive to our interview. It's only an hour away in Iowa's capital Des Moines. Downtown on Fourth there is a snazzy little coffee shop called Java Joe's. I've been there many times. They have rick showing through the masonry, a scuffed stage peformers do their…

In a recent taekwondo class I was instructing the students in the single bahng mahng ee form. For those of you who can't read Korean, that is the single stick. The form is lengthy and complex. I've told my students many times (and I apologize to the creator of this form) that I think the single stick is boring. Or rather, I have seen too many times boring forms performed by competitors at tournaments. I…