Fandom Classics Part 92: Cracked Beauty

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

One thing I see in a few students every year is that "I'm going to send you to the office if you don't stop ______" doesn't have any effect... but "go to the office" results in a perfect 180 in behavior, shortly followed by shock and anger that yes, they still have to go to the office.  Once I say "go to the office," it's too late to dodge the consequences!  I sometimes wonder if this is just what they've learned based on their home life, or if there's a more fundamental developmental reason they have this expectation that those consequences will be rescinded (I've heard people claim both), but either way I figure they need to learn sooner rather than later that listening to warnings is far better rewarded than trying to get punishments overturned.  Ah, life lessons.

Click below for my review of Slate Sadpony's Cracked Beauty.

Fandom Classics Part 91: The Appledash Project

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

I'd like to submit a proposal to the Powers That Be in reality TV programming: put the Tim Gunn Rescue into every reality/contest show.  Tattooing shows, cooking shows, King of the Nerds, whatever; in every season of every show, Tim Gunn should come on at the end of one episode and announce that he's bringing back whoever just lost and is about to go home.  Let him be the glue that binds a fractured cable TV audience together!  Until then, we wait.

...And to pass the time while we wait, feel free to click down below the break and check out my review of bookplayer's The Appledash Project.

Mini-Reviews Round 67

I've been sick-but-not-enough-to-really-complain-about for more than a week now--you know, the kind of sick where you feel kind of cruddy sometimes, and you know there's something wrong, but you aren't sick sick.  Anyway, what's really getting me is this dry, hacking cough I keep getting every night.  It always kicks in around nine or ten, and lasts until I manage to get to sleep.  How does that even work?  How is time-sensitive illness even a thing?  At first I thought it might be something in the bedroom, but nope; same problem, same time, even when I stayed out in the living room.  What kind of garbage is that?

Okay, whining over.  Click down below the break for thoughts on what I've been reading for fun lately.

Fandom Classics Part 90: To Be a Better Stallion

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day!  I didn't even know that until yesterday afternoon, but I'm completely pumped to celebrate it.  Said celebration will consist of of putting out an extra ear of corn on the squirrel feeder, then appreciating the squirrels as they viciously try to keep one another from actually eating any of it (and failing miserably).  Sure, it may not be nearly as important as the other holiday we (Americans) had this week, but just like big things are worth fighting for, sometimes little ones are worth celebrating.

My review of Autumn Wind's To Be a Better Stallion, below the break.

Proud Owner of One (1) Brick

Which would be great, except that brick used to be my computer.  Taking it in  tomorrow, and hopefully everything is good after that.  Otherwise I'm stuck with just this phone, and  just getting this post going has taken 11 minutes so far... I'm old and bad at technology, I guess.

Hopefully, we'll be  back in business come Wednesday.



UPDATE: I need to get my motherboard hard drive, which is not the same thing but my annoyance stands, replaced.  The computer's a year and a half old, and it needs a new motherboard.  Really?  Really?

Anyway, the good news is that, until I get that fixed, I've borrowed an older desktop from a friend, on which I'm writing this.  It's not much, but it should be plenty for my day-to-day purposes for the time being--including, most importantly, writing reviews.

Carts and Horses

Today, I want to take a time-out from reviewing to talk about writing.  Specifically, I want to talk about what is or isn't a good idea for a story.  Not in terms of good plot/bad plot, but even more fundamental than that: what is a story idea vs. what is a story element.  Click down below for my thoughts on the matter.