How I Use My Ears To Be More Productive
I’m always striving to be more productive so I can laze around and have more free time. My quest to be a gentleman of leisure involves quite a lot of … Read More
Ghostwriting pros and cons. Is it worthwhile or soul-destroying?
I used to do a lot of ghostwriting, and it has its pros and cons. I should preface this piece by noting that, as I have written 100s of ghostwritten … Read More
Inspired By Silicon Valley, I Now Want To Be A Quirky Coder. Hello Python!
I have been binge-watching Silicon Valley on HBO Max, and it has made me want to code. I think I am having a mid-life crisis, which might be related, but … Read More
How To Escape The Per-Word Trap And Make Real Money As A Writer
I have been paid per-word or per-hour for about five years now. In my previous bouts of freelance writing, dating back decades (I’m old), it was the same. For writers, … Read More
The Penguin: A Brutal Descent Into Gotham’s Really Grim Underworld
HBO’s The Penguin is a brutal, stylish, and unflinchingly dark crime saga that delivers everything I hoped it would after watching The Batman. It is set just a week after the events … Read More
Switching Focus To Short Stories To Make A Fortune
Or a pittance. Time will tell… The popularity of short stories has waxed and waned over the decades. They have always been around as myths and fables like the Arthurian … Read More
AI Writes Poor Prose – Use It To Fix Procrastination
And how to make an AI assistant I use AI to cure my colossal procrastination but don’t use it for any writing – you can probably tell. I was a … Read More
The White Lotus Season 3 is in stunning Thailand, where I live. Is it realistic?
Plus, is the show any good? I just finished watching The White Lotus Season 3 and loved it. As I mentioned before, tons of friends hassled me into watching the … Read More
Don’t Watch The Fantastic ‘The White Lotus’ On A Plane!
As the latest series of The White Lotus is set in Thailand, where I currently live, friends have pestered me incessantly to watch the show. Even an old fellow I … Read More
Scheduled Tasks On ChatGPT Is Actually Pretty Cool
Scheduled Tasks is a new function on ChatGPT, which I have been playing around with recently. It is still in Beta, but it works really well. It looks at first … Read More
Fantastic tunes to listen to help write more and focus
I listen to tunes when I write. This is often to drown out the noise of fellow humans, but I also really like it and it can induce flow state. … Read More
I’m now addicted to Dredge and Balatro
I have Dredge and Balatro on my iPad and frankly, they might be causing a productivity problem. I brought this on myself but am actually pretty happy about it. I … Read More
After Career Advice From ChatGPT I’m Trying Something Drastic
I don’t use ChatGPT for writing, as the output is a bit bland. You can probably tell by my garbled syntax. Writing is also my livelihood, and I am mildly … Read More
The Occult – Rankin, Lovecraft, And Marenghi Are Warping My Mind
I’ve always been weirdly interested in the occult. I blame rock music. (Just kidding – rock rules and hail the darkness!) I recently realised that the last three books I … Read More
The most depressing day annually, and weird Christmas traditions
Happy Christmas and New Year! If you don’t celebrate either of them, then I hope you have had a good January so far. The New Year always marks a time … Read More
Next year, I am improving my chess skills. Here’s how
I recently decided to get better at chess. I was on the school team back in the day, but I was the lowest-ranked board, and our side was generally rubbish. … Read More
To Monetize Or Not? Reaching An Astonishing 100 Subscribers On Substack
I hit 100 subscribers on my Intriguing Times Substack yesterday and am pretty damned excited about it. ‘Astonishing’ is admittedly a bit hyperbolic, but it is apparently good for SEO. … Read More
From Zork to AI Dungeon: How AI is Revolutionizing Interactive Text Adventures
AI is so damned useful that I am overwhelmed and am still thinking of ways to use it. You can probably tell that I don’t use for writing by looking … Read More
How to be more productive when writing – great music and apps!
I listen to music and use a few apps that really help when writing, and consequently, I thought this might be something helpful for others. I write for a living. … Read More
Getting Substack subscribers and changing writing focus
It has been around a month and a half since I launched my shiny new Substack. Previously, I’d had a science fiction and fantasy newsletter for a month and it … Read More