Where is My Flying Car?

You’ve sitting in a traffic jam and in normal traffic you have an hour more of driving to do. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a flying car. Weren’t we suppose to have one by now. A little history. Back in the 1960s there was a animated cartoon show...

Get Annoyed to Find Ideas

“So where do the ideas actually come from? Mostly from getting annoyed about things. Not big issues so much … as the little irritations that drive you wild out of all proportion.” — from the introduction to The Frood: The Authorised and Very Official History of...

Finding Ideas and Writing a Newsletter Column

I write a monthly column for a radio club newsletter. Every month I have to come up with an idea for the column. At first this was easy, I was over running with ideas. Then it became a slog. I write books and screenplays and a lot of other things. The column for the...

Writing , New Ideas, and the Virus Block

I have been having trouble writing these blogs and the cause has been starting me in the face. I’m stuck, isolated at home. I need inputs. One big source of inputs is conventions. Be it radio conventions, Science Fiction, or Steampunk conventions. Meeting new...

Too Little Background or World in the Story?

I’m writing a story set in 1890s Paris, France. I have a history book that tells me that this is a time of great upheaval. They are rebuilding the streets of Paris. Widening them and straightening them. Of course this means taking away land, building and homes...