Guy LeCharles Gonzalez (aka glecharles) (aka loudpoet)

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Story Chairs, Pocket Poems, and the Fickle Flame of Inspiration

Perhaps it's just the drama this week offered -- from the tragic and inspiring events in Boston, to some big things starting to shake loose at the day job -- combining with the unexpected introduction to some good poems, but I'm getting that feeling again, a tentative spark that danced unusually bright in my brain throughout my run this morning. It wasn't a full-fledged poem, just the beginnings of one, words and ideas tap-dancing to a vaguely familiar rhythm, a lucid dream that lasted for a couple of miles before threatening to fade if I didn't write them down. So I did, cheating my cooldown and stretching to get to the computer as fast as I could.

Continue ReadingStory Chairs, Pocket Poems, and the Fickle Flame of Inspiration
Tough Mudder

Don’t Stop Running

The feeling of running across the finish line, whether it's a one-mile walk for charity or a local 10k, an Olympic sprint or the Boston Marathon, is supposed to be a special one. It's personal accomplishment mixed with exuberant community connection; an emotional high laced with varying degrees of physical exhaustion. It's not ever supposed to be a moment where death might lash out randomly. Where cowards make political statements. Where fear and suspicion take root.

Continue ReadingDon’t Stop Running
Bioshock Infinite

BioShock Infinite’s Ambitiously Flawed Perfection

"Wow..." That was my whispered, slack-jawed reaction to the final 30 minutes of BioShock Infinite, arguably the most compelling video game experience I've ever had. It's not a perfect game by any stretch of the definition, and since completing the game, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading some of the more measured reviews that haven't been afraid to point out its flaws, but to borrow a phrase from Grace Jones, it might not be perfect, but it's perfect for me.

Continue ReadingBioShock Infinite’s Ambitiously Flawed Perfection
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Discovery is Publishers’ Problem; Readers are Doing Just Fine

Never mind the folly of dismissing Goodreads, a social network dedicated to books with 13m+ members and is steadily growing, or even Pinterest, where Random House has inexplicably attracted 1.5m followers, but the very idea that "something is really, chronically missing in online retail discovery" is arguably contradicted by Amazon's 2012 results, suggesting that "online retail discovery" isn't really a problem for readers. It's a problem for publishers.

Continue ReadingDiscovery is Publishers’ Problem; Readers are Doing Just Fine
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Hate the Parents, Not the Video Games

There are a wide variety of video games out there, and yes, some are extremely violent. Same goes for movies, TV shows, and even good, old-fashioned books. If you don't want your kids playing these games (or consuming any other similar media), be a responsible parent and deal with it, but don't go playing the blame game every time some senselessly violent act occurs too close to home, crying for government regulation.

Continue ReadingHate the Parents, Not the Video Games
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

6Qs: Tobias Buckell, Traversing Publishing’s Diverse Fantastic

In the beginning, when I was trying to sell my first novel, I had a weird experience of editors really wanting me to write, sort of magic realism set in the Caribbean, or about recent immigrants with a magical ability (I've had two editors actually give me that logline and ask if I'd be interested in writing that story, but it's just not there for me, I've got other stories still to tell). There was a strong sense that, hey, this is how you can be marketed as a Caribbean novelist.

Continue Reading6Qs: Tobias Buckell, Traversing Publishing’s Diverse Fantastic
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