Web Log
SPELLWRIGHT Book Tour!
Dearly Beloved You People: Should you want to be dazzled by the light glinting off my head, hear me read, see me get nervous about signing books while talking at the same time, here’s the present calendar for the Spellwright DIY Tour. (For updates you can check back here or watch my blog.) March 14th, [...]
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How Playing Dungeons & Dragons™ Will Prepare YOU for Medical School
Lately I’ve been fielding questions from earnest, interested parents about helping their children to one day reach medical school. I usually have to resist the urge to ask a snarky question about why the parents want to punish their children. But I do resist, mostly because deep-down, I have loved medical school (or all that [...]
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News Post: The Son-of-Two-Psychoanalysts
A quick fact about me: both my mother and my father are psychiatrists. (Yes. The answer to whatever question you’re wondering right now is ‘yes.’ Trust me.) More interesting still, they’re both psychoanalysts. More than anyone, Mom and Dad deserve the credit for any success I’ve had overcoming my disability. Their devotion, kindness, and patience [...]
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If Snark & Snide had a Love Child, It Would be This Interview
(The following cross post appears originally on the web page of my very dear friend-the best selling, award winning, incorrigibly witty, and infinitely teasable Gail Carriger.) Today, Gentle Reader, I am pleased to present a not-so-normal interview with my regular writing-buddy, Mr. Blake Charlton. Someday I will tell you all the story of how we [...]
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How a Problem with Tolkien’s Modern English Helped Inspire Spellwright
(The following post was written for http://voyageronline.wordpress.com/ and will be posted there around when the book hits Australian shores. When asked to write a post for Australian fantasy readers, I struck upon this topic by considering possible similarities in linguistic experiences between someone who’d grown up in Sydney (though my knowledge of Australia is admittedly [...]
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The Happiest (possible) V-Day to You!
I don’t know about you, but when I think about Romantic Love I think about one or several early Christian martyrs with little or nebulous historical record but surrounded by semi-morbid stories of an unjust religious imprisonment, passionate letters handwritten while incarcerated to an undetermined someone else, followed by a public beheading. Oh and cutout-paper [...]
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What do Medicine and High School have in Common?
The other day my internal medicine research team met up at the project lead’s office and we walked over to a conference (eight pairs dress clogs go clomp clomp clomp) that was then occupied by a research team. They were running over the time they had signed up for. We stood outside, waiting for them [...]
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News Post: Exclusive Spellwright Excerpt & DIY Book Tour FTW
Hermanos y Hermanas de la Fantasía: Here’s a pretty frakken important med student tip: Should you be listening to a Medical Spanish podcast about sexually transmitted diseases, do *not* listen and practice pronouncing the vocabulary from said podcast while running on a treadmill in the gym. ¡Estoy embarazada! Oh…wait…that mean ‘I’m pregnant?’ ¡Ay caramba, Charlton! [...]
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What Happens to a Debut Author’s Brain on #Amazonfail
[Soft lights up on a small messy room. BLAKE lies sleeping fitfully on mattress with a unlikely tangle of sheets. Down stage and to the right of the bed lies THE UNIVERSE INCARNATED IN A PROTEAN PILE OF CLEANED BUT UNFOLDED LAUNDRY.] THE UNIVERSE INCARNATED IN A PROTEAN PILE OF CLEANED BUT UNFOLDED LAUNDRY: [quivering [...]
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Self Q&A: Why You Can’t Pre-order Spellwright on Amazon Right Now
Q: Blake, why can’t I pre-order your book on Amazon? A: Well, Blake, MacMillian (publishing conglomerate) and Amazon are fighting about ebook pricing. Q: Why? A: It’s kinda messy. Likely not worth your Sunday. Q: I like messy. A: That’s not really a question. Q: Bitch, please. A: Fine, here’s MacMillian’s message to authors/illustrators and [...]
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