“Sunrise 2”
Rose, magenta, peach –
all ripple and weave on the
early horizon.
Steve D
Author: Steven D'Adamo
I'm a fantasy author and blogger. I like to write about the creative process, music, movies, books, and my weekly haiku series, "Haiku Sunday"
Creativity Sessions: Cliffhangers as a Narrative Device
I enjoy cliffhangers in novels. As someone in the marketing profession, I also understand why they are often used at the ends of novels. I’ll be just finishing up the story when the author throws a curveball, making me go Oh shit, how can you leave me hanging like that?! And then Book 2 comes out and I buy it immediately, because obviously I have to see what happens. It’s good business.
But as a narrative device? I’m becoming more and more skeptical of the end-of-book cliffhanger. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Cliffhangers as a Narrative Device”
Haiku Sunday – Trash
“Trash”
Are not all things we’ve
built, wrought, and designed simply
eventual trash?
Steve D
Fear and Mugging in Charm City
I watched an older man get mugged last night. A slightly graying evening sky hung over my friend and I as we were sitting at a red light, opposite a strip mall on the far corner. A young man was pulling on what looked like a wallet in the hands of an older man in front of one store. The younger man punched the older man in the face, took the wallet, and ran off. The old man fell to the ground, and we could not see if he was unconscious from where we were sitting. Someone finally got out of their car right next to the old man to help him. The light turned green, we drove passed, but the younger man had disappeared.
We continued on our way. Continue reading “Fear and Mugging in Charm City”
Haiku Sunday – Raindrop
“Raindrop”
If I followed a
raindrop through its cycle, where
would we fall again?
Steve D
Actually Nearing the Finish Line
Ugh. The tying down of plots and characters continues.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, part of the delay on finishing Manuscript 1 of “Jaed and Aston” has been in trying to parse out the finishing plot points for each of my characters. The biggest difficulty I’ve found in this process has been in fitting the final pieces for each character together concisely, without jamming too much info/action into one section. Continue reading “Actually Nearing the Finish Line”
Haiku Sunday – Mud 2
“Mud 2”
Caked-on mud bakes,
limbs sun-cast into bricks – my
earthenware armor.
Steve D
Audiobooks and Critical Listening: Shockwave by John Sandford
Do audiobooks count for my Goodreads reading goal? I feel like they should.
Future Father-in-law gave me a few audiobooks on CD for Christmas this year, and it took me a while to pop one into my car’s stereo. I was hesitant about this for a couple of reasons: Continue reading “Audiobooks and Critical Listening: Shockwave by John Sandford”
Haiku Sunday – Wind / Fu
“Wind / Fu”
Air does not settle.
Always moving, it surrounds
and envelops all.
Steve D
dreaminsanity: Earth Day, Humanism, and Environmentalism
Earth Day is probably the most concerted effort to unite people around the world in positivity. The collective uplifting of the human spirit and natural world is seen in profile pictures on Facebook, in campaigns by companies and organizations all over the world, and in pledges by governments to act on their commitments to the environment. In my mind, Earth Day is the most significant act of humanism we have currently exhibited. As Wendell Berry famously said: “The earth is what we all have in common.” Continue reading “dreaminsanity: Earth Day, Humanism, and Environmentalism”
