Mike Ditka died on Friday at age 86. A Hall of Fame player, fiery coach and larger-than-life cultural figure, "Iron Mike" became a Chicago sports icon by lifting the Bears to their greatest heights.

When Dr. Clark “Doc” Savage Jr. was being created, one of the inspirations was another Clark, and not just in name only. In his book Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines, Ron Go…

Big tech threatens reading, writing, and, by extension, the very foundations of democracy.

YouTube video by Dr Myriam François

YouTube video by Jonny Talks Science Fiction

It’s been a while since I posted here about my “reading scheme,” so, quickly recapping… This is my own personal reading, for my own enjoyment, education, enlightenment… all the good things. And that said, I know it sounds weird to a lot of people that somehow “for my own enjoyment” comes with a “scheme.” I guess that’s a part of the way my brain works.

At least 7,370 unique titles were removed from public schools across the U.S. in the last academic year, according to the new report, as administrators in states such as Texas and Florida increasingly...

AN INDEX TO FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK   First, chronologically…   June 2009 June 15, 2009 Who is Philip Athans? I should probably update this—my autobiography. * * * July 2009 July…

Fear has played a large role in city building from the beginning of human history to the present.

From time to time I’ll recommend—not review, mind you, but recommend, and yes, there is a difference—books I think fantasy authors should have on their shelves. Some may be new and still in print, some may be difficult to find, but all will be, at least in my humble opinion, essential texts for the fantasy author, so worth looking for.

We don't really want what we think we desire, says philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

Chooseco’s first gamebooks for adults will launch next year, starting in July with a reimagining of Pride and Prejudice. “I can’t tell you how many fans have been asking for this,” says director of ma...

A federal judge, without ruling on the merits of the case, said the plaintiffs made a sufficient showing that they are harmed by the ban of their books from public schools.

OpenAI has thousands and thousands of contractors helping improve the company's AI models. Multiple contractors have been fired for using AI to train the AI.

With heartfelt thanks to ThePulp.net I ran across the 1922 essay “The Place of Action in Fiction” by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman over the weekend and I’m begging every author—and every reader—of any genre of fiction to please read, study, absorb, and live and write by its admonitions. I’ve always advised that we assume the greatest latitude in our definitions of words like “action” and “conflict.” I think these terms can get in the way of some authors, those with more “literary” leanings who might shy away form the idea of guys fighting, of any sort of physical violence or car chases, explosions, etc.

Inside the industry's growing alarm—and the struggle to turn warnings into action.

A 1922 defense of action fiction argues that adventure stories are not crude entertainment, but one of storytelling’s most fundamental forms By Arthur Sullivant Hoffman As people progress in cultur…

YouTube video by The Ash Files

Classics researchers think it was part of a reference booklet traveling officials carried with them

Okay, then, back from vacation and back to work, and finally starting to read our September GoodReads group read: 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg. And by “starting” I mean I’ve now got the first two and a half page section of the introduction under my belt. But fear not, I will have this read by October 1st!

When it was published in the United States in 1998, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Readers want to live in your story, from inside the point of view of a character, experiencing your world on a human level. How do you, as a writer, give them that experience? Your point of view (POV)...

Language is an instrument of great precision and poignancy — our best tool for telling each other what the world is and what we are, for conveying the blueness of blue and the wonder of being…

'The Dunwich Horror' by H. P. Lovecraft

Normally I write these posts on Tuesday morning, and it’s exceedingly rare that I have any sort of plan ahead of time, even a vague idea for a post. I often just sit down and think, Okay… what do I write about this week? But I’m actually writing this post a week ago, and will schedule it to pop up today, because for the first time since May of 2024, I’m on vacation.

As I grow older, the ideal of rigorous analysis speaks less to my needs as a reader.

Short fiction is powerful because of its constraints. By compressing language and time, it achieves a singular intensity the novel cannot.