His ability to speak and write on jazz, “America’s music,” was singular. His ability to not only back up but expand on his strong opinions about music, race, and art was deft, enlightening, genius.
Probably the biggest influence of The Men Who Stare at Goats came via my decision to feature a goat in a particularly bizarre and gruesome chapter of We Take Care of Our Own.
I took it upon myself to learn what it is we’re talking about when we talk about worldbuilding. I’d like to share some of the more interesting tidbits with you.
On Killing is a hefty one — my paperback edition comes in at nearly 350 pages — and yet it’s extremely readable, with mind-blowing insights every few pages.
There’s nothing I find more fascinating in a book or movie or whatever than a group of people discussing the making or breaking of human lives in purely practical terms.
Not that I imagine anyone ever noticing, but there’s a good chance that, even amid the beautifully formatted timelines offered by Preceden, I still have a few time-sensitive mistakes.
The pitfalls of privatizating the military is a major theme of my novel. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army bestowed on me invaluable insight in my development of that theme.
To a long-struggling writer who never got into it for the money, an advance is an advance, and if a company is willing to give you one plus take on all the expenses involved in publishing your work, you better take it, dummy.
There’s a common, not terribly clever term many writers use to capture the toil and frustration involved in the submission process: banging one’s head against the wall.
Why expend the energy of replying to an unknown author’s email? Just because you state on your company web site that you welcome unsolicited emails and make every effort to respond in a timely fashion? Pfft, get real.