Lessons from the Manhattan Project
Last week, I began my graduate-level class on WMD and Film as I usually do, with an in-depth examination of the Manhattan Project. While I am fascinated with the history of the atomic bomb, I believe that in order to truly understand the dynamics of nuclear proliferation, it is important to stand in the shoes of those who made the first discoveries related to the bomb and who built the U.S. nuclear complex from scratch under extraordinary circumstances. Without this perspective, it is difficult to understand why some countries have succeeded in developing nuclear weapons, while others have failed.For the first Read more…
Choose Your Own Fiction Adventure
Have you ever yelled at the screen telling the lead character of a movie not to do something? Have you ever wished that you could advise the director on a better way to end the movie? This is your chance. I’ve started a crowdsourced fiction novel. That means you, the readers, can direct me where you would like go with the story, the characters, etc. How does it work? I will develop the overall book concept, create the main characters and then begin writing scenes. At the end of every scene, I will offer up 2-3 options for readers to choose Read more…
Choose Your Own Adventure 2.0
Over the past year, I’ve been struggling with a problem. It’s a chicken and egg problem. Is my first fiction novel the chicken or the egg? Well, the answer to that question is not as simple as it seems. On one hand, it must be an egg, because it is produced (in this case, by me, aka the chicken in this story). But more and more, I realize that my first novel is really the chicken. Huh? If you already follow my blog, I’ve discussed this issue in several posts. Last spring, I created this blog because I realized that I need Read more…
Creating your own Graphics in PowerPoint
I have decided to become a member of the so-called shadow industry of self-publishing. In the past few months, I’ve learned that to be successful at self-publishing, I need to become an entreprenuer and think of writing as a business. It took me a while, but I’ve finally come to the realization that marketing and sales will respresent a big slice of my business activities in the coming years. If we agree to treat writing as business, then we must be concerned with the bottom line. For this reason, it’s good to have a few tricks for doing marketing on Read more…
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