Category Archives: writing

Trimmed

books, politics, writing Leave a comment

The first video-intensive website I remember visiting is a special site that Norelco built to sell a new razor that was designed to capitalize on a new trend, one that’s called “manscaping” these days. Not only was the instantly-loading video kind of a shock to me at first (as was automatically-playing audio, which had become a no-no back when so many of us were loading our websites up with crappy MIDI sound files), but the website, shaveeverywhere.com (which is now owned by a domain hoarder,…

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No Off Switch

personal, work, writing Leave a comment

Last month was incredibly exhausting for me. In addition to all the weather-related problems I’ve been documenting online (perhaps too much, I know), and some challenges at work, I’ve been chin-deep in research for my next big book. An opportunity arose for me to go deep into one thread of my research, in order to write an article for a major academic journal, so I spent an awful lot of time tackling that, doing work that should definitely help when I get around to writing…

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Post-Pyrrhic and Punch-Drunk

arts, books, politics, sex, work, writing Leave a comment

Five weeks ago, I blogged about a very problematic turn of events for me. On the one hand, the leading book review organization Kirkus Reviews had posted an incredibly positive review of my first novel, The Prostitutes of Lake Wiishkoban. For many authors, getting this kind of a review can be career-making , and it was coming as I headed into a summer where I didn’t have any teaching work. Getting this review in front of as many people as possible became a top priority for me,…

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The New P-Word

arts, books, politics, sex, work, writing 1 Comment

A little over a week ago, I received one of the best pieces of news I’ve gotten in several months. Kirkus Reviews, a very prominent book review magazine, posted an online review of my first novel, The Prostitutes of Lake Wiishkoban, that was highly complimentary of my work (to say the least). Quotes like “Shannon’s … fiction debut is an entertaining, provocative bildungsroman that successfully turns an unconventional premise into a thoughtful exploration of freedom and identity” are the kind of thing that authors like me dream…

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Whiskey Tango Facebook

freespeech, internet, politics, work, writing Leave a comment

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Facebook data leak: Regulation is necessary (Yahoo! Finance) Part of the preparatory work I do as a teacher of college-level English is to make myself aware of the technological and pop culture elements of society that my students are likely to be aware of and use in their everyday lives. This process is known as gaining “cultural literacy,” and although it’s ultimately not as important in my preparation as knowledge of the intricacies of the English language, I’d argue that…

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