M. Weald

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Author

On most occasions (with anime/manga being the exception), I tend to read the written version of a story prior to viewing its adaptation. Not so in this case. I actually wasn’t even aware Mickey 17 – a recently released science fiction film directed by Bong Joon Ho with Robert Pattinson as its lead – started …

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So often in storytelling the topic of pacing is brought up, belabored upon, critiqued. But, to my experience, it’s more often than not in one direction: readers, viewers, or listeners telling the author to put the pedal to the floor and get moving, to stop getting side-tracked by self-indulgent curiosities and keep the story going. …

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Revelation Space, the circa 2000 science fiction novel by the author Alastair Reynolds, is another book I read based on the recommendation of a friend, the same friend, in fact, who recommended Hyperion by Dan Simmons. These are two very different books, even if they are both science fiction, and they each held within different …

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Hey all. I got the Kirkus review for The Work of Restless Nights, and believe it or not there was nary a negative comment to be found! This one had me nervous, I’ll admit. The whole setup for self-published authors, any author really, is primed for inducing anxiety. You pay Kirkus a not so insubstantial …

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A nine month streak fades, and, with any luck, a longer one begins. My apologies on missing the July post. It’s been hectic, to say the least. What with publishing my novel and preparing for a trip to New Zealand and Australia for the Women’s World Cup, things have been a bit busy. As to …

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Imagine a typical Star Wars movie or TV show. It probably has both a Jedi and a Sith in it, one or both members of the Skywalker family. Or perhaps these days it contains a reserved yet eminently capable bounty hunter with a heart of gold and a young, green Yoda-like creature in their care. …

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I was told by a friend who’s already passed the somehow both meaningful and yet meaningless benchmark that is 30 years since entering this world naked and screaming that both my muscle strength and bone density would halve at midnight. I don’t believe that happened, but then again perhaps one’s mental faculties also drop in …

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I recently finished The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin, the second novel in her Dreamblood duology. Perhaps that is why romance in fiction is on my mind. Without naming names, though this probably still amounts to a bit of a spoiler, it employs the age old, and by all means effective, arc of enemies …

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I attempted to hike a 14’er last week. For those not indoctrinated by the outdoorsy culture, a 14’er is shorthand for a mountain summit that exceeds 14,000 feet, an elevation where oxygen is in shorter supply than confidence at a middle school dance. There were many small breaks to catch my breath, as much as …

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In my last post I mentioned moving across the country for graduate school. Well, cut to over two years later and I have both graduated with a Masters in Applied Mathematics and slunk back to the corporate overlords in order to pay off the school loans I had to take. I joke but in actuality …

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