My personal site is in state of revival, as I follow through on a long-contemplated change to my blogging style. I let inertia hold me back. No longer.
Since July 2011, I reserved most of my personal writing for Google+ and built there a fairly robust following (more than 16,000 Circles at present). The social network makes easy posting and connecting to others. Elsewhere, I write for BetaNews (e.g., for work).
If you want your writing to impact, be present. Past tense weakens the narrative and deadens the emotional connection with readers.
Present tense is a weapon, which use raises body counts. Over at the BetaNews, some commenters consistently accuse me of being an overly-emotional writer. I cock my head and laugh, because just the opposite is true. Ambivalence is my feeling about 95 percent of stories, if not more. But accusations persist that I am a killer. For sure—of past tense.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpuF_CTQrlo] Scifi lover Shea Standefer and “big all-around nerd” shows off her stunning the Original Star Trek costume, in this video I shot during Comic-Con 2012. She bought the costume from Anovos, which […]
Here is another vid from Comic-Con 2009 and, again, 360p even though I shot in 1080p. Perhaps YouTube allows re-uploads with higher quality? This one is a bit long for the actual content, but I […]
To celebrate the opening of San Diego Comic-Con 2014 pre-registration, I discount my book Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth. Go to Smashwords and use coupon code “SZ79R” to get the book for $1.49 instead of $3.99. The coupon expires tomorrow, so grab the ebook today.
Comic-Con Heroes also is available from other major ebookstores, like Amazon Kindle and Google Play. I offer the deal through Smashwords because the store lets me generate coupon codes and offers readers a wider selection of format options, with ePub and Mobi being the most important.
Yesterday I awoke to an email from The Graham Norton Show asking to use this photo from my Comic-Con 2010 Flickr set. Well, thank you for asking! My pics all carry a Creative Commons non-commercial […]
If you swabbed the seats at TechCrunch Disrupt, spread it across a petri dish, and dipped that dish in uranium, this man would eventually emerge. But there’s no need to wait: he’s real, he works […]
Creating millions of lone-wolf, single-person bloggers doesn’t get us to a golden age…If you’re going to reliably produce journalism that improves the world, maybe you don’t need a village, but you need some collaborators. You […]
I love Twitter, all the more since Eric Snowden’s revelations about the U.S. government’s secret spying program. The company largely stands apart from other techs’ positions, but not completely. In December, I scolded Twitter, along with Apple, Facebook, Google, and a smattering of others for their “disingenuous and self-serving” call for global government surveillance reform.
Today, Twitter tweaks the government regarding an agreement that expands disclosure of information requests, including those that fall under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In a startling act of defiance, Twitter chooses not to disclose the number of FISA and other national security-related requests, contending they’re scope is an “overly broad range”.
On February 4, Microsoft named Satya Nadella the new CEO, replacing Steve Ballmer. I decided to jump, and gather a group of folks to discuss what the transition means, using Google Hangouts On Air. What’s the saying about reading the instructions first?
While there’s something whiny about Western journalists’ tweets, excellent is their use of Twitter to engage readers, build audience, and report something interesting ahead of the Olympic Winter Games start: Journalists at Sochi are live-tweeting […]
Five days ago, I launched a crowdfunding campaign, at Indiegogo, for my forthcoming book Be a Better Blogger. Learning by doing is sometimes a painful exercise, and my progress, or lack of it, is a textbook case of what not to do.
My campaign is off to a much slower start than anticipated, generating just two donations for $60 in contributions. Thank you, both. You’re my heroes. I had hoped the book’s topic would generate interest among bloggers, journalists, and PR professionals at the least. I sent out mass emails to them and contacted family and friends, but too few of the latter.