Category Archives: RESEARCH

Literary Loitering

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In a certain writing magazine a certain author was featured, and in that story, we are told The notebooks filled. But he reached a point where he had to stop. “I just begin, and then find I write myself into a corner of human experience about which I’m totally ignorant,” he says. Writing paused for about six months while he plowed into research. He read 33 books, including the Koran twice. He came to the point where he felt he could teach a class on Islamic extremism. Informed and enlightened, he finished the novel. Which took five-and-a-half years to write. … Continue reading →

Alien Methodology

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A few days ago, I began working on a story idea of the alien invasion variety, because the premise made me laugh and I thought it would be fun. Besides, I have wanted to do a series of short stories to test the market and see what people were responding to these days. Well, the alien invasion story became more like an alien visitation. And then, I found that while it was entertaining in premise, there was no real conflict going on, and none of the characters had much to gain or lose. That’s the death knell for plotting. One … Continue reading →

Thatness & Whatness – being snarky

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Bound to happen….don’t know why I’m surprised. I’ve been publishing excerpts intended to market Supernatural Hypocrisy. Someone just gave me a pissy little review on one of them a while ago, so I went to his site and left one of my own. Amazing what people do. His review was on Thatness & Whatness, and only said “Review by: Brent Adams on March 31, 2013 : star Not impressed. Doesn’t seem well thought out or researched.” So I looked at his wordpress site, and it was one of those generic, newly made ones with all the defaults still up, and … Continue reading →

The Religious Have Less Brain Activity

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fromhttp://www.physorg.com/news155404273.html Researchers find brain differences between believers and non-believers Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers. In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task – a well-known test of cognitive control – while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity. Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are … Continue reading →

iGoogle for Ideas & Reference

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  One tool that I use everyday has proven invaluable to my writing. It also has value in other areas, but for the purpose of this post, I will address iGoogle for writers. If you are not aware of iGoogle, it would behoove you to change that. iGoogle allows you to personalize your information searches. You can gather, track and monitor all areas of interest, and all in one place, on one page. You add widgets or modules to a certain tab, which you can also create. I have a writing tab where I place all modules concerning writing. This … Continue reading →

Me and Food are Filing for Divorce

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I am tired of food. Does that happen as you get older? I did a search on Google, hoping for insight, and I couldn’t find any information on this. Not finding something on Google is highly disturbing to me. You can ALWAYS find ANYTHING on Google. I assume I’m using the wrong key words. But it does make sense that after 40-plus years alive, you’ve probably tried most everything at least once. But I feel I’ve tried everything, along with its variations, a hundred times. I do eat as healthy as possible, and even when I stray from that, I’m … Continue reading →