How To “Write” a Book with Less Effort, No Writer’s Block and Faster Results – without typing it!

How To “Write” a Book with Less Effort, No Writer’s Block and Faster Results – without typing it!

This is a guest post from my friend Sean, who’s an expert on writing books by dictation. I asked him to send me some more information, since using dictation to write books is potentially much faster and may help avoid writer’s block. Simply put, Tonguenastics™ harnesses the power of your tongue and the spoken word The 3 secrets...

Only Lovers Left Alive vs. The Vampire Academy (Reflections on High and Low Art, Life and Death, and Creative Production)

Only Lovers Left Alive vs. The Vampire Academy (Reflections on High and Low Art, Life and Death, and Creative Production)

I underestimated vampires. I thought the trend was mostly dying down. I thought we, as an international culture, had decided to focus more on zombies, post-apocalyptic survivors, and dystopian, authoritarian governments. I thought Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows or Adam Sandler’s Animated Vampire Film Hotel Transylvania signified that...

Picasso was a talentless hack – and you can be too! (absinthe, art and creative genius)

Picasso was a talentless hack – and you can be too! (absinthe, art and creative genius)

I’ve known for some time that Picasso was a self-aggrandizing asshole of little talent (capable of massive production, but not hard to do with no quality standards). From non-art affectionados Picasso’s cubist paintings or simple line sketches may elicit comments such as “any kid could have drawn that.” A superficial...

How to make an author website or book sales page that doesn’t scare away your readers

How to make an author website or book sales page that doesn’t scare away your readers

For years I’ve been dancing around the idea of offering author websites. I’m a WordPress pro PLUS a graphic designer, so I’ve got the skills – and WordPress author websites are in huge demand and average around $1000 to build. Why I don’t do it? I don’t want to become the author’s life-long tech person...

How to learn Mandarin Chinese (or any language) super-fast with language hacking.

How to learn Mandarin Chinese (or any language) super-fast with language hacking.

I’ve studied Spanish, German and Chinese in both school and immersion environments; in both classroom settings and one on one tutoring. I’ve also been an English teacher to ESL students in several countries. Some things I’ve learned about language acquisition: You have to make it a primarily goal, not a hobby. An hour or two...

Driving Campeche to Calakmul: no food or water, lots of policemen to bribe

Driving Campeche to Calakmul: no food or water, lots of policemen to bribe

In early 2013 my wife and I were in the Yucatan on a kind of extended honeymoon; I’d been wanting to see the ruins and temples for a long time. Most of them were on the tourist route – day trips from Cancun or Playa del Carmen. Easy to get to and with lots of The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted castle tour. Totally...