Writer To Go

Why Publishers Don't Like Apps

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:58:12 -0400

I hated every moment of our experiment with apps, because it tried to impose something closed, old, and printlike on something open, new, and digital.

- Jason Pontin

It’s rare that I appreciate a recycled cliche, but somehow...

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:47:35 -0400

It’s rare that I appreciate a recycled cliche, but somehow this works for me. Although I might prefer the version I heard on World Cafe.

"Books don’t win because of flash. They win because they’re readable. It’s the..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:00:51 -0400

“Books don’t win because of flash. They win because they’re readable. It’s the words that provide the excitement. Anything that gets in the way is going by the wayside.”

- Dave Winer

"In the age of blogging, every student should take an introductory class in journalism, so they know..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:41:24 -0400

“In the age of blogging, every student should take an introductory class in journalism, so they know how to ask questions, and to tell a story, and the importance of disclosure. With everyone writing publicly, it would be great if an education included some practice at doing this well.”

- Dave Winer

"You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next"

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:47:03 -0400

“You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next”

- Ernest Hemingway

This may be my favorite quote, today, about Maurice Sendak: if his ideas about children wore...

Tue, 08 May 2012 23:00:00 -0400

This may be my favorite quote, today, about Maurice Sendak:

if his ideas about children wore controversial, his attitudes about their parents were unrepeatable.

- Michael Silverblatt

Hearing and reading old interviews with Maurice Sendak today, I think he had the knack for...

Tue, 08 May 2012 19:44:39 -0400

Hearing and reading old interviews with Maurice Sendak today, I think he had the knack for “reading” each audience and speaking to it.

I read about Maurice Sendak’s dysfunctional family, his parents to whom he never “came out”. His...

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:09:37 -0400

I read about Maurice Sendak’s dysfunctional family, his parents to whom he never “came out”. His parents, who lost all their kin in The Holocaust. I think about our species, capable of systematic, soul-deadening atrocity. Together, they produced this man who pronounced himself too fucked up to raise children, who never stopped being angry.

Who wrote children’s books. I pull those books from the boxes where they’ve been since my son ceased to be a child — these books, in which Sendak shared a child’s truth. I think of the millions of impressionable, but not innocent, minds that heard these stories over and over again, as they drifted off to sleep. I reflect on the power of words and pictures, and the slow course of human progress.

And I feel a little hope.

- Mykl

"I refuse to lie to children. I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence."

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:34:47 -0400

“I refuse to lie to children. I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.”

- Maurice Sendak

(1928-2012)

‘tis what it’s all about

Sat, 05 May 2012 17:24:47 -0400

‘tis what it’s all about

Ngram Viewer

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:52:21 -0400

Ngram Viewer:

graph the history of specific words and phrases.

So 16 percent of bestselling titles are exclusive to the Kindle Store — and the Department of...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:33:11 -0400

So 16 percent of bestselling titles are exclusive to the Kindle Store — and the Department of Justice is investigating Apple’s iBookstore. Got it.

"A Prairie Home Companion", so what?

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:33:26 -0400

I can listen to this long running show for months and months, while doing weekend chores, and think only “Eh, there they go again”. Sometimes the music is great; usually it doesn’t suck. And the variety of skits and gimmicks are, after all this time, safely predictable, steadfast.

And every week I listen as Garrison Keillor continues the same story he’s been telling over 2 or 3 decades, in that same voice, with a narrative style like a spring lake’s sun-broken sheets of ice bumping against each other, as they melt into something else. It’s like half listening to an old friend who repeats himself, as the tea grows cool in my cup.

Then, every once in a while, the rutty rambling, sliding and shifting nudges me out of the micro and into the macro — onto the desolate prairie that no one settled, until there was no place else. Then for a minute, I slip beneath the deep water, immersed in something that was hidden. Every once in a while, like a hypnotist who made me forget he was even speaking or that I was listening, Garrison completely nails it.

Then I listen with both ears, and I remember what I’m listening for. On the prairie I’ve never been to, in the waters where we’ll all sink or swim.

"The only viable Plan C, for breaking Amazon’s death-grip on the consumers, is to break DRM."

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:36:49 -0400

“The only viable Plan C, for breaking Amazon’s death-grip on the consumers, is to break DRM.”

- Charlie Stross

a sultry promise, more than sunny flirtation, this whistling spring breeze. #vernal #haiku ...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:00:06 -0400

a sultry promise,
more than sunny flirtation,
this whistling spring breeze.

#vernal #haiku

— Mykl

“This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:27:05 -0400

“This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.”

- Winston Churchill (allegedly)

"Reliably linking to great work is a good way to build an audience for your site. That’s your..."

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:00:05 -0400

“Reliably linking to great work is a good way to build an audience for your site. That’s your compensation.”

- Marco Arment on via links

"Some of the bravest people I know work for daily newspapers, and very damn few of them work in..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:00:06 -0400

“Some of the bravest people I know work for daily newspapers, and very damn few of them work in management.”

- Charles P. Pierce

"…a new and potentially powerful concept of fairness: being ‘fair to the truth’,..."

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:00:06 -0500

“…a new and potentially powerful concept of fairness: being ‘fair to the truth’, which as we know is not always evenly distributed among the sides in a public dispute.”

- Jay Rosen

Thinking it’s okay that we don’t really know the...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:00:05 -0500

Thinking it’s okay that we don’t really know the origin of “okay” — but that it’s fun to try.