Chandler

Author of Speculative Fiction

How Robert Redford Influenced Wolf Code (And Jim and Jamie Dutcher Too)

So where did you get the idea for your book? Authors hear this question frequently. It is a good conversation starter because it asks the writer to punctuate the highlights in the long journey to bring the story to the readers. Though some novelists can crank out books in several weeks, most of us spend months …

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How Martin Luther King Saved Uhura: The ‘Escapist’ Power of Stories

I recently watched the documentary Trek Nation and learned Nichelle Nichols considered leaving Star Trek after the first season. During this pivotal time, she met Martin Luther King, Jr. and learned he and his wife numbered Star Trek among the very few shows they let their children watch. When he learned she was planning to leave the show, …

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How To Celebrate Tiger Day 2015! (With a Selection from Wolf Code)

This weekend (Sept. 26-27) Vladivostok, Russia celebrated its 16th Amur Tiger Day. Check out the link to the Phoenix Fund website: Here. Why should you care? Tigers as a whole are an endangered species, and several subspecies are critically endangered–and some like the Balinese tiger have already become extinct. Along with decreasing habitats, as human …

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How To Find the Perfect Writing App: An Idiosyncratic Quest from Typewriter to Scrivener

Now that I’m in the production stage with Wolf Code, I finally took a moment to re-evaluate my “workflow,” as a number of writers call the process by which we fashion words into stories. I’m not talking about the creative side to writing, but the physical side. Thirty plus years ago, a writer would answer this …

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Of Magic Mules, One-Headed Monkeys, and Swamp Pirates: A Review of Jeff Sartini’s The Adventures of Shamis and Larry

  If you appreciate dry humor, wry wit, and satirical fantasy, then you are in the right place. If you love The Princess Bride or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or A. A. Milne’s lesser known Once on a Time, then you will appreciate the wordplay in Jeff Sartini’s The Adventures of Shamis and …

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An Environmentalist Message from Pixie Hollow: A Review of Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast

After seven adventures (including the much shorter Pixie Hollow Games), who’s your favorite fairy? From the start, when I was drawn into this world for my daughter, mine has been Fawn. Since the previous films only hinted at the possibilities for her character, I was delighted to see the Disney team has finally turned the …

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Batman, Detective: Final Part

Working in the System: Truth, Justice, and Cooperation Fundamentally, the project of tracking and trapping these criminals is too great for Batman to complete alone. Despite his reputation and demeanor as a loner, Batman’s effort as detective is a communal one. Truth and justice need a social grounding. In addition, Batman sometimes makes mistakes and …

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Batman, Detective: Part 5

Villainous Games: Profiling & Confronting Criminal Distortions Since Holmes opposed Moriarty, several famous detectives have faced off against recurring villains, who view the committing of crimes as an elaborate game of wits with their opponent. Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, and a myriad of others have offered crimes as challenges to the Dark Knight. Early in his …

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Batman, Detective: Part 4

Uncovering the Truth: Infiltration, Interrogation, & Intimidation  Detectives trade in information, and there are various ways they collect this information. Detectives cross-examine suspects, often in coercive and even violent ways. Detectives pick locks and discover further ways to break into spaces that others would want to keep hidden. And finally, at least since Sherlock Holmes, …

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Batman, Detective: Part 3

The Obsessive Detective: The Quest for Justice Is a Quest for Truth Why did Batman become a detective? Many of us know the dark origins of his story. Batman was a victim of one of the most severe crimes; the murder of his parents fueled his ambition to become one who opposed such evil. Writers …

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Batman, Detective: Part 2

Detective Fiction, Pulp Magazines, and the Origins of Batman It may be a subject for debate about who is the most famous detective–Batman or Sherlock Holmes or Scooby Doo? And even though Sherlock is the eldest of the three, even he cannot claim to be the first. Usually that literary honor goes to Edgar Allen …

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