Category Writing
The Fish Market
If you look over my home page, it says I’m the author of three books – The Blackguard (available in April), The Book of Joshua (available in October) and The Potency (available in July). This isn’t strictly true. There’s a fourth book called The Cult of Benedict Arnold that I began as a 19 year-old […]
Something Rotten in the Publishing Industry
As a writer, the thought of the publishing industry shrinking or dying used to really bother me. What writer doesn’t want to see their name on the spine of a Penguin Classics novel or, upon walking into a Barnes and Noble, see their own work featured by the front door? If the industry shrunk, I […]
Don’t Be a Wimp, Writer’s Edition
This is part two in a two part series on writing. To visit the first, please click here. When I listen to struggling writers – writers who never finish the book, never get the article published, give up after 14 pages – they always seem to mention problems with inspiration. “I just don’t have any […]
Writers’ Groups
This is part one of a two part writing series. Please click here if you’d like to see the second. I’ve taken part in two distinct types of literary community. In the first, people come together, usually at an establishment specializing in $8 variations on Folgers pre-mix, and exchange opinions on each others’ masterpieces. In […]
토마 연설
토마 연설 여기서 저의 토마 스피치 있습니다. 즐겨 많이 드세요. 문법 많이 틀어서 최송합니다. 이런 각본은 원래 상태로 보여주실 거예요. 영어로 쓴 각본은 좀 달아요. 차이 점은 저의 초급 한국어는 때문입니다. “안녕하시기 바랍니다. 제 말씀을 잘 들어주시면 감사하겠습니다. 스피치 시작하기 전에, 아주 중요한 질문을 하고 싶습니다 – 너의 정체는 뭐에요? 다른 방법으로 물어보면, 누구세요? 깊게 […]
The Speech Contest
I had been avoiding giving speeches at the Mokwon University chapter of Toastmasters, mostly because the speeches are in English, the members are almost entirely Korean and the entire thought of competing with them just struck me as incredibly unfair. There was also the part about me not wanting to write or memorize a […]
The Completely Practical Value of Imagination
In addition to writing this blog, playing with distastefully modified cars and mystifying Koreans with my awesome hanguel skills, I am a graduate student in Paichai University‘s second language acquisition (TESOL) department. As part of my studies, I’ve been collaborating with one of my professors on a scientific paper investigating motivation in language learning. This […]
Excerpt from Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
‘Alls I’m – or think about the Holocaust. Was the Holocaust a good thing? No way. Does anybody think it was good it happened: no way. But did you ever read Victor Frankl? Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning? It’s a great, great book. Frankl was in a camp in the Holocaust and the book comes out […]
The Best Way to Make An Impression on Readers
The Best Way To Make An Impression? by Todd Borg It’s likely – but not certain – that the answer is to write a really good book. In fact, everything I say after this sentence is predicated on the assumption that you have written a really good book and that your book also has a really good professional cover and really good editing. […]
Gravitational Pull
. A review of the film Gravity and examination of scary fiction. Gravity combines scary and beautiful in ways I’ve never seen. That the director is able to keep his characters dangling in the abyss the entire length of the film without straining the audience’s suspension of disbelief is, certainly, a sign that Alfonso Cuaron is very […]
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