Writing

Writers and Editors

I’ve had two compliments on my shoes today. They’re black and white sneakers and unless I’d asked a friend for help I would’ve never bought them Key Rands deficiency: I’m fashion impaired. Always have been. It’s not that I don’t care what I look like, it’s that I have no basic fashion sense. I don’t… More

Swear A Bit

In 2006, I ‘ll be entering the fifth year of this blog. It’s my habit to spend some time each New Year scanning the previous years entries to see what the hell has been on my mind. I tackled a lot of different topics last year and that’s a great idea for another article. As… More

Rands on Joel

The writing career to date. I’ve got 30 journals dating back to the early 80s where I believe, at one time, I lied IN MY PERSONAL JOURNAL that I’d figured out the Rubix cube. The high school years were productive. There were girls about and, for some reason, I thought a semi-fictional story was a… More

Chaos Complete

The new design is officially live and in the wild. Whew. Briefly, I had four design goals going into this redesign. First, I wanted to remove the sense of linear time from the site. While this is certainly a weblog, I want to give visitors every chance to find entries/essays which were published awhile ago,… More

Use Your Misery

When you’re suddenly inspired, there’s a sound. Pop. If I’m sitting next you when this happens, I won’t hear anything, but I’m going to see it in your face. Pop. What was… is now more. It’s the “a-ha” moment. It’s the clouds parting. It’s insight. It’s the spark. There are endless ways to describe it,… More

Weblog Writing

I’m not a huge fan of defining process for writing because I believe that once you start defining a writing process, you create unnecessary barriers for your writing. For example, I’m certain that I am incapable of writing well when I’m drunk. Why is this? Well, back in college, I got hammered on a case… More

Readers Block

I am in a total readers funk. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been rereading old favorites and I’m beginning to find the “been here, done that” experience to be dull. So, I’m looking for suggestions for some holy shit-like reads. I’ve been on an American history kick for a year or so, but… More