As a Patreon supporter at the Mad Technician ($5) tier, you’ll get exclusive access to a monthly comedic essay addressing different aspects of writing and publishing.
collection
individual essays
How to Write a Novel in 30 Days. “Jeff did a piece called How to Write a Novel in Two Months a little while back, and when I read it, I smiled, because I’ve run that race, too…”
​
Have I Ever Told You About My Love/Hate Relationship With Confessional Poetry? “There’s training to be had in poetry just like there’s training to be had in fiction, but the training in poetry tends to be more like acting class: find your deepest, most horrible, painful, darkest experience and drag it up for the joy of the crowd…”
​
How SF Prepared Me for the Future. “I was listening to the radio the other day, and they were very sternly reporting on drug violations at the Olympics… My reaction? GO TEAM CYBORG!”
​
Voodoo Economics: How to Find Serenity In An Industry That Does Not Want You. “The first tier of Writer Anxiety can aptly be described as ‘Oh, God, Let Me Get Published.’ The second tier falls under the fluttering banner of ‘Oh, God, Let Me Keep Publishing.’…”
​
Blowing Off Steam. “Parents, talk to your children about steampunk.”
​
Raise your Gauntlet of Rock. “It’s funny how music terms get appropriated and become general terms – like punk or punk rock. Or like “metal.”…”
​
We Built This City…. “So. Let’s talk about cities for a bit, shall we?”
PUBLISHED WORKS: CRITICAL
THE SACRIFICE OF POLYXENA: THE FEMININE ARCHETYPE IN GREEK AND ROMAN DRAMA
(PUBLISHED UNDER BETHANY THOMAS)
This paper, presented at the World Conference for the Humanities on the Isle of Rhodes in July, 2003, appeared in the 2004 edition of the International Journal for the Humanities.
It presents a new way of conceiving the Jungian archetype in a manner which can be useful for feminist scholarship through the women of Euripides’ and Seneca’s versions of “The Trojan Women.”
Order “Sacrifice of Polyxena” from International Journal of the Humanities
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MOTHER: OEDIPUS, FEMALE ARCHETYPES, AND PARALLEL VERSIONS OF THE PHOENICIAN WOMEN.
(PUBLISHED UNDER BETHANY THOMAS)
This paper, a continuation of our research involving the utilization of archetypes in Classical tragedy, was presented at the World Conference for the Humanties in Tuscany, July, 2004, and will be published in the International Journal for the Humanities in 2005. Co-authored by Dr. Linda O. Valenty of the Political Science Department at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo.
Order “Tell Me About Your Mother” from International Journal of the Humanities
WINE, WOMEN, AND SONG: FEMININE ARCHETYPES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MALE IN THE BACCHAE AND HIPPOLYTUS
This paper, further exploring the archetypal analysis of the gender imperatives of Classical theatre, is to be presented at the World Conference for New Directions in the Humanities, Cambridge University in August 2005.
These three articles are currently being developed into a book on the subject, co-authored by Dr. Linda O. Valenty of the Political Science Department at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo.
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD: KATABASIS AND THE FEMALE HERO IN ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE WIZARD OF OZ, AND THE NUTCRACKER BALLET
Presented at Wiscon, Feminism in SF/F Convention, 2005.
FollowTheYellowBrickRoad.doc (113kb) (Article currently unavailable.)