Recent content by Stuart Dren

Red wine, cider, and certain hard liquors tend to have a little higher methanol (nowhere near the kills-you-and-your-five-friends-during-Laos-vacation levels) than other alcoholic beverages. It's suspected to be a contributing factor to the nastier hangovers.

I respect ignoring the browser's default spell check every now and again, which based on your spelling of defence tells me you might have to do routinely (you must be UK/Canadian?).

Inoculated? Though I genuinely think rigor mortis got it with desensitized

I suppose I see the need to lower the target so significantly mid-flight to be a case of underwriting. Wise artistic decision or meek coping strategy? Unintentionally lacking -> it probably sucks. Adding padding to meet a word count -> probably chaff. What's lacking could be exploration of the...

Oh yeah drinks can just permutate like crazy with modifications. My father used to mix vodka with his beer, and he free-handed more than a shot. So instead of calling it a boilermaker (whiskey in beer) he called it a boiler repair man.

I underwrite. Or to put it in clear terms, I tend to initially fall short of my word target for novels. My current WIP is 34k and aiming to hit the third act too early. I've decided that, given its particular nature, I'm okay with it landing on 70k instead the 80-90k I shoot for. Do you think...

I don't know what orange and sumac is like, but on the occasion have brandy or Ballantines kicking around I usually throw some angostura in there.

From Wikipedia. Iceberg theory - Wikipedia I don't know how the value judgement would come from anyone apart from the writer, since Hemingway was the only one who knew for sure what actual elements he was omitting for any given story. Perhaps he indeed only expected the writer to be the judge...

I've edited all the personality out of my short stories before. I think I've since gotten better at resisting the self-critical urge to oatmeal everything, though.

Love triangle. Envy is fine, or a few passing thoughts, but I find it impossible to relate to as an enduring preoccupation.

He bought the Legendary Edition for $6 (all three games) when it was on sale. It's full price right now. The link you posted is just to the Steam release of the first game. You don't need a subscription to play Mass Effect. That's an optional subscription to EA Play. It lets you play the game...

Laptop on the sofa, or sometimes outside. Caffeine is preferable but leads to a performance rollercoaster. I'm the prophet of inconsistent output. I fantasize about having a secluded and austere writing nook like King. Its battery died, and since it's five years old, I decided to be dangerous...

In the past I went from writing each scene in a .RTF file to using yWriter. I want to use Scrivener. I own a copy. Currently I use google docs. The low pretense and no-effort cloud keeps me coming back.

I'm hesitant to use the term 'less human.' I don't like implications if that's taken to its extremes. I would say it's certainly limiting our potential much more than it's potentially expanding it. Students have never really understood why they were given writing assignments. At best they...

I think your terms are fine. The issues of "why not drones/artillery" and "why not projectiles" are always tricky in that kind of setting. Frankly most military sci fi doesn't even address why their military tactics sometimes end up being more primitive than WW2 doctrine. A lack of resources is...