• Writing Resources

    Lazy on Kobo too

    Just another reminder that the first two Lazy Designer books are also available for Kobo devices (for those of you who have those devices instead of Kindles). Lazy Designer Book 1: How to Start a Career in Game Design Lazy Designer Book 2: Making the Next Game

  • Writing Resources

    My Work on Smashwords

    Just a quick update. As many of you know I have several story reprints available on Amazon as well as the first two volumes in the Lazy Designer series. Up until now I have also had the same content available on Smashwords. Smashwords is a great service because it distributes work onto multiple platforms, including Apple’s iBooks and Kobo. But as convenient as it is to have Smashwords distribute for me I’m finding that the vast majority of my sales are still occurring on Amazon. And unfortunately, for me at least, the process of getting the Lazy Designer books to work properly with Smashword’s formatting tools has been time consuming.…

  • Writing Resources

    Read This: Digital Rights by Brent Knowles (Writers of the Future Winning Story)

    The Assistant responsible for the primary thruster arrangement killed itself just ten days after Izzy arrived on the solar station. The panicked chatter of the other Assistants prevented them from continuing with their own duties. Horror, speculation, and worse of all, wonder, flowed across the station’s network. Izzy had to stop it. And it was her fault; it never should have happened. She had been distracted. Later she would blame the ghost, but for now, she simply reacted. Simply acted. Her body twisted and jerked, her fingers puncturing the holographic displays that surrounded her, initiating commands as she fought for the station’s survival. Earth, beautiful, blue, perfect, floated in front…

  • Writing Resources

    Read: The End of the Road by Brent Knowles

    Wanderer looked down in satisfaction as he walked the old mountain road and saw the town below him. The stagnation of the human race was at an end and the survivors were now rebuilding. So ended the apocalypse. Wanderer continued towards this hotel from his past, an old, sprawling structure sitting high atop a cliff, until loud noises from ahead made him pause. A cat’s howl. A woman’s cry. The raucous laughter of boys on the verge of manhood, the cruelest and most dangerous of ages. With a sigh he resumed his pace. He was the Wanderer and he would do what needed doing before doing what he needed. The…

  • Writing Resources

    Read: The Prophet by Brent Knowles

    The helicopter disappears beyond the horizon and Wanderer returns his attention to the laptop sitting awkwardly on his knees, sharing space with a can of cold beans. He digs into the beans with a plastic spork as he views the web site behind his dust-covered screen. A photo of a large man with wide, powerful eyes, stares back at him. It surprises him that these remnants of the old order linger still. Web sites: illusory constructs, full of ideas and utterly lacking in physical substance — devoid even of the paper reality of a book. Of course, they too will fade eventually as power grids collapse and the servers of…

  • Brent's Toys,  My Life

    iPad + Kobo + Instapaper = Awesome

    Longtime readers might remember me ranting about not enjoying the reading experience at online magazines such as Strange Horizons or Clarkesworld. I very much dislike scrolling and prefer a paging experience. This is probably one of the reasons I really like reading eBooks on the iPad as all the book apps use a paging interface. Anyways yesterday I stumbled upon a good solution… using Instapaper I can flag stories I want to read later and then read them through the Kobo app on the iPad. This gives me the ability to page-read (no scrolling!) So I’m happy. And now I’m going to go sit downstairs by the fire and finish…