Humanity's fascination with numbers can be traced back to the Sumerians, and the ancient language, cuneiform. In some of the species' earliest cities, written communication was invented as a means of keeping track of numbers. Census data, to be specific, which was used to levy taxes on the populace. Aside from showing that both writing, and math, were developed in order to facilitate taxation, this is arguably the start of humanity's fascination with using numbers to explain the world around it. As we developed new mathematics and new techniques for recording information, the unique capabilities of statistics were leverages for wider ranging applications. Geometry, for instance, which oddly enough has the same root word as geography or geology, geo, which means earth, is called geometry because the Egyptians invented it to measure out parcels of land.
Blood Magic and Other Updates
Writing on the third episode is coming along, although more slowly than I would prefer; I've been pretty busy recently. Still, I'm about 1/3 done. I've also been working on some other projects, which I'll detail below. Hopefully this will reassure those of you who have read some of my rough drafts that I haven't forgotten about these other stories, and give all of you a better idea of what some of the features on the My Works page are all about.
Plausible Impossibility
If you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you may remember the post "Written in a Corner." In that post, I mentioned that I would write another post addressing the topic of plausible impossibility, which is an important concept in speculative fiction writing. Of course, if you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you probably also have realized that I'm not always very good at following up on these post ideas that I drop in my posts in anything approaching a timely fashion. Don't worry, I'll get to it eventually. In this case, it's only taken me a couple months.
Home for the Holidays
With the holidays coming up, I won't be posting for the next couple of weeks. Instead, I intend to eat too much food, spend time with family and friends, and hopefully read a few, good books in front of a fire. Some writing might go on too, of course. I start to twitch if I go too long without writing down the crazy ideas that bounce around in my head.
Lightbringer Review
After five books, Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series concluded with The Burning White, which I reviewed in the previous post. Since it is the end of a series, I wanted to do a review of the series as a whole, to accompany the review of the final book.
The Burning White Review
I will fully admit that I devoured The Burning White after my re-read of the Lightbringer series, by Brent Weeks. I'll be posting a review of that book, specifically, here, and will also make a later post reviewing the series as a whole. Now, I'm not some kind of literary critic, but I have read a lot of genre fiction, and I have a good idea of what I like to see. That being said, what I like to see may not be the same as what you like to see.
Happy Thanksgiving
With the holiday this week, I'll only be making one post. As much as the weather may be conducive to curling up with a good book, Thanksgiving really should be a chance to spend time with family (and eat too much, of course), not hide from them with a book (or blog post). That's how I will present an altruistic reason for selfishly taking a break from both my real job, and my website maintenance this week.
The Rise of Skywalker Trailer
This is in some ways a continuation post to an earlier post I wrote about being written into a corner. With the recent release of the Rise of Skywalker trailer, I think we need to talk about something. Specifically, I think we need to talk about The Last Jedi.
Written in a Corner
As I'm working on the Fo'Fonas series, I've made the decision that I'm going to write rough drafts of every novel in the series before I will seek to publish even the first one. I think this will improve the strength of all of the novels, since I'll be able to better tie everything together and generally make for a tighter story. It will also make my job as a writer easier, because I won't be stuck with an immutable origin when I get to later parts of the series.
Reading Update
Well, I've finished my read-through of the first Fo'Fonas novel (current working title is At the Top of the World). I've made extensive notes, and will be combining my own notes and changes with the feedback I get from my various test readers to inform my revision process. Some of the major changes that I'm currently tracking are
IGC Publishing 