Month: June 2013

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Personal

It’s not personal It’s just… happenstance Just a conflagration of circumstance and need Rolled together And pressed flat Fighting for position In this rather tangled mind And it’s not about you You with your hyper ambivalence All just put on for show In your push and pull mentality That conscious constant need For understanding When … Continue reading Personal

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Sam McManus: Writer

Image of Sam McManus
Sam McManus: Writer

I know, it seems so obvious, but then again maybe it’s not. If you first met me on the street, or if we met at work, or if it was at a wedding, or heaven forbid a funeral, wherever we met, unless it was at a writer’s conference, or at my book signing (July 13th is right around the corner), you would have no way of knowing I was a writer. You would see that I’m tall, that I’m black, that I have short hair, that I’m sporting a mustache, and that I prefer wearing jeans, but your first thought probably wouldn’t be “writer.”

And that’s okay. I know why that is. Writers are a varied group of people who can look like ANYONE, and who can sound like ANYONE. We are short, tall, rich, poor, long-haired, short-haired, black, white, good speakers, bad speakers, and everything in-between, or outside of those labels. The point is that a writer can’t be labeled, so why would you automatically label me one if we first met? Continue reading “Sam McManus: Writer”

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In Media Res

in media res: into the middle of affairs; often used when discussing novels that begin partway through the story. For example, The Iliad starts partway through the Trojan War, not at its beginning.

So many movies and television show episodes don’t start with the traditional storytelling arc anymore. We don’t get so much back story at the beginning, and the pattern doesn’t follow a linear progression throughout. It’s the same with books as well. Famously, The Chronicles of Narnia begins when the Pevensie siblings end up in the magical land of Narnia for the first time, but it is really only the beginning of their journey and not the beginning of Narnia itself. That is finally explained in the sixth book in the series. The Butterfly Effect bends time so the beginning isn’t really the beginning. And the television series Revolution shows a world without electricity, then backtracks in flashbacks to show how it came to be, and what role each person we’ve already been introduced to has played in it.

But why is it so popular now? Continue reading “In Media Res”

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On A Rainy Afternoon

On rainy afternoons I play golf. I stand tall and swing like my life depends on it, watching the ball carefully as it flies through the air and generally lands where I want it to land. Then I look out the window and I realize the neighborhood kids are watching me through the window. Oh, the glory of playing Tiger Woods 2010 on the Wii system with the shades pulled back. I guess it’s okay, though. I mean, I did have good form. Continue reading “On A Rainy Afternoon”

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Books For Sale?

I’m good at finding books. Nice, cheap books. No, not cheap because they’re worthless and should have been thrown out, but cheap because they’re an amazing find. I used to be like that when it came to CDs too, but then CDs died, and maybe books are next, or maybe they’re already dead but no … Continue reading Books For Sale?