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7 Ways to Celebrate Independence Day

7. Run through the streets singing Yankee Doodle--all fifteen-or-so verses!--at the top of your lungs. 6. Call everyone you see "comrade." 5. Remind everyone how this day is a day of remembering and honoring our belligerent founding fathers' disrespect for authority. 4. Mail letters to all your British friends--gloating! 3. Write a short story about a professional baseball player. Then, reveal it to be nothing but a young boy's daydream, suddenly shattered when he hits a baseball through a windo

15 Reasons You Need to Vote in the Flash Fiction Marathon

15. Every vote is a word promoting and inspiring the divine arts of literature. Help bring a master of the craft one step closer to the hard-earned glory he deserves!   14. The fact is, your vote counts! Even the best entries might only win by one vote--if they win at all! Do you want terrible entries to win just because they're popular? Do you want to be personally responsible for the next Twilight?   13. You are advocating Unity.   12. It is your Duty.   11. It is your Destiny.   10. You are s

How to Cure Writer's Block

The bane of any writer is the dreaded staunching of the creative energies. The cause of this disease is hard to place. Some say it is indolence. Some say it is tied closely with diet and appetite, and the same things that affect both. Whatever the cause may be, I have developed a surefire, failsafe, foolproof, certifiably success-guaranteed cure to this onerous disease.     You will need: - One bed - One pillow - One rope (a sturdy twine will do)   Directions:   Step 1. Lie on the bed, face up.

Play it Again, Sam (Second Death in Print)

You told me never to play this song again.   If promises were LEGO they could seldom be broken, but most promises are composed of that cheap stuff they use to may Happy Meal toys.   Besides, I kept my promise not to mention it any time soon. This isn't soon. Worry not; I will keep it brief.   The Second Death is now available in paperback from Createspace (preferable) or Amazon for $11.99. Add in shipping and handling, and if you've got about sixteen or seventeen bucks to burn and no Kindle to b

Quoth Don Quixote

One of my favorite quotes from the novel:   Writing requires understanding, if not comprehension; to feel if not to know; and that most important faculty of the human mind, born of understanding and comprehension and feeling and knowledge and experience and intuition and much else: great judgment--but better to say, prudence.   I don't know if I would say that writing requires genius; granted there are many geniuses in the history of literature, no doubt. The only requirement, however, is clev

Poetry

So somebody's been gossiping behind my back, saying I should write something like this. =P Well, I'm not much of a poet, but as far as I could tell there was no rhyme nor reason to that, nor any metrical structure. I'm probably wrong, but I know precious little of poetry anyway, and so I will leave it up to you to tell me whether this is a poem or not. Fifteen minutes of trying something like the previously mentioned poem, and this was the result:   Pain and sorrow let loose to kill, Joy and bl

Quoth Carl Sagan

Beautiful; and very eloquently put. This is very much how I feel about literature. It is a magic indefeasibly real. Is fiction as fictional as the word suggests? I think not. It may be intangible--yet, in some ways, it is now. It is the world that exists beneath ours, the mirror that reflects the truth of our lives. Sincerely, Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith

The Second Death: Yours Free Forever!

Last time I'll plug this, I promise.   The Second Death, Kindle eBook, is free now through January 30th. Get your hands on it now and it's yours to keep forever, yours to read any time your Kindle is handy, and yours to review if you happen to feel munificent and eloquent. ;D Just be sure to let me know so I can give you proper thanks.   All right, I'll say no more on the subject. At least not any time soon. Thanks again!   Sincerely, Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith

A Promotion Reminder and a Dissertation entitled "To Say or Not to Say"

To get the former out of the way first, The Second Death will be yours free forever if you download it between January 26th (two days to go!) and January 30th.     Now then, I would like to discuss the issue of whether 'tis nobler to say something, or to utter it, or perhaps to state it. Is it better to ask or to inquire? Bring adverbs into the equation, and the field becomes open to even greater argument. The simple fact is that every writer and every reader, too, has their own opinion about it

The Second Death Now Available!

Is it January 12th yet?   All right, well, there were formatting issues that delayed matters. Amazon recently altered their system without updating their guides, and that led to complications. But all is well now; and The Second Death is now for sale!   It can be purchased here. It is for sale exclusively through Amazon right now, and for Kindle alone; which means that if you don't have a Kindle or an iDevice with a Kindle application, you won't be able to read it--yet. But it will be available

Coming Soon to a Kindle Near You . . .

I have an announcement that's going to make Kraggh vomit a modicum in his mouth, tear out his hair, and weep uncontrollably for the lamentable prospects of the written word. And while this bit of news may strike terror into the hearts of some, I could probably name a greater number who will be pleased, perhaps a few who would even be thrilled.   What am I leading up to?   Nuile wrote a novel.   And he's publishing it.   (Coming 1/12/13) Pattrick Clayton is a farmer in a somnolent Lancaster

Sanguine Goodbyes

And now that my reflections are over, how better for a writer to end a year than with a story? This is, in a way, a sequel to Polychromatic Frowns; it can be called such, at any rate, because it is of the same style. And so here it is, the last words I shall pen in 2012:     Sanguine Goodbyes   I lost the only girl I ever truly cared about today.   I gave her everything. I gave her all the time I could spare and all the help I could offer and all the love I could give. But it wasn't enough fo

The Year in Review

And now, my friends, the time has come to ponder what this past year has been to my life.   It has been one of the longest years of my life, and one of the most difficult, but I cannot call it the worst. Nor can I call it the best. It was not bad, and it was not great, but it was good. There are many things upon which I can look back with joy, and those which I can look back upon with remorse, as well. That's life, though.   I've changed so much in the past year. I guess that's what happens in t

The Year in Review: Writing

The Year in Review: Writing   In brief calculation I have written upwards of fourty short stories during 2012, most of which were flash fiction, some of which climbed above five thousand words.   In the Jungle, which I assure you is not a songfic based off "Wim-o-weh," is my top choice for the best short story I wrote this year. As far as story, it has been compared to Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and I myself compare it to Tarzan of the Apes in an inverted way. As far as st

The Year in Review: Reading

In checking my notes I found, rather to my disappointment, that I have read little over twenty novels in the past year. Not a very significant number at all, and not a very satisfying one, but there you go. Nothing can be done about it now! The past cannot be changed. But that is the point of this reflection, is it not? Evaluating the past to better plan for the future.   To Kill a Mockingbird is easily the best novel I've read this year. I believe I already reviewed it some months ago in early

The Year in Review: Television

I don't watch much television, and this year has held little broadcast significance for me. However, those ways in which television was meaningful to me were especially meaningful, so I will make note of them.   This year I was introduced by my best friend to The Legend of Korra, with which I immediately fell in love. I began watching Avatar: The Last Airbender posthaste, and well before Korra had run its whole season I had beheld the grand spectacle that was the Last Airbender finale. This is a

I Ask You: Synopsis Options

I'll go into greater, more specific details re the purposes of this, which should be essentially self-explanatory, but for the moment I'd like to ask you guys a favor. I merely ask you to look at these two synopses I've drafted and elect your preference. Mix and match if you wish, share your thoughts, let me know if it's the type of synopsis that would entice you to read a book. Thanks!   A Mockingbird was a drowsy town in rural Lancaster Pennsylvania, a place where nothing ever happened and

The Year in Review: Film

Another year of my life nearly written! And as this chapter draws to a close, it is time to review my own work, as any good writer should do.     I'll begin in superficial ways. First, filmographically.   I'd say it was a pretty good year. I've seen plenty of great films, new whether to the world or to me, or old by various definitions. Let's take a look at some of the highlights.   Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D. This remains my favorite of the Star Wars saga, and the three-dimensio

Polychromatic Frowns

Those crazy Ambagers are at their writing-off again. This theme was "Rainbow."   Polychromatic Frowns   Rainbows make me want to cry.   Surely you’ve seen one. Surely you’ve seen how dreary they are. They’re big frowns plastered across the sky. And their bright colors are incongruently cheerful. It doesn’t make sense. It’s illogical. Irrationality in nature makes me want to weep.   The frown itself is bad enough. It makes me want to frown. But the colors mock my woes and make me want to cry.

The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead   The fading sunlight imbued the upper reaches of the bland gray stone with a gold tincture. The shadows stretched away from my window, as if running away from me.   I felt like shooting the sun. But I knew even I couldn’t make that shot.   Besides, it was behind me. I was peering across the crowded street to the rooftop garden where a young man lounged in his undergarments, reading a book. I hoped, for his sake, it was a good one, worthy of his final moments.   As I took

"Perseverance"

Every now and then, we all feel a little despondence. We lose hope or confidence and we feel down. Especially when we're about to tackle a daunting task, we all have our misgivings.   The specific thought that brings this all to mind is National Novel Writing Month. A lot of writers are dedicating themselves to the task of writing a hefty 50,000 words during the course of the ensuing month, and that is no simple task.   So for them, for anyone who needs a little inspiration, I offer this poem. I

Dialect: Yea or Nay?

Simple question. When you're reading a book, how do you feel about accent? What do you like to see, and what do you dislike? Do you prefer to be free from the occasional phonetic spellings? I'd like to hear your thoughts. Or perhaps, "I'd like to heah yore though's."   Sincerely, Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith

The Hardest Path

The detritus of an Ambage write-off isn't always pretty. The theme was "pathfinding," a forecast of the contest. I this day wrote my two entries and submitted them. Though by the rules of the contest I am permitted a third, I rejected this story due to a lack of love for it that, if you read it, will be understandable.   That said, I did in a small way enjoy writing it; though it was a bittersweet feeling as would accompany any writing taking place in the constraints of fifteen minutes is wont t

Ambage Fortnightly Flash Fiction Contest

Is it your purpose to express yourself? Do you want to bring form to thought? Or are you just bored?   Then why not pit your pencil against your fellow writers (or become a fellow writer if you are not!) and join the second Ambage Fortnightly Flash Fiction Contest? Come create with us, and discover meaning in experience!     To dispense with the infomercial talk, the theme is "Pathfinding." Personally I have several ideas, and one of them may just involve a young boy wandering in the woods with
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