The Blues: Keeping my Legs Crossed

           For the past couple of years, I've taken part in Script Frenzy, a NaNoWriMo-like event for scriptwriters, with my students. As part of this, I've tried out various scriptwriting and hosting services. One of these, Scripped.com, has taken to sending out daily job posts, places where an aspiring writer can pick up a Ben Franklin or two writing Web copy and blog posts. I read it regularly because, frankly, I'm interested in being a working writer again. In past weeks, I've gotten offers from a gin-tasting site, a LINUX blog and various others. Mostly humdrum, occasionally interesting, but nothing to write blog about.

Yesterday's missive, however, caught my eye: Up to $240 to write posts for a pro-virginity blog aimed at young females. From the e-mail: [They're seeking] “Flavorful, salacious, witty, charming, comical, thought provoking, provocative, hard hitting and no holds barred read but no tip toeing or walking around on egg shells around the subject of why in the hell young girls, teens, single women should avoid premarital sex until MARRIAGE.”

Books for Writers: Alliterate Monsters

Ask Dexter daddy Jeff Lindsay about his favorite authors and he might offer historical-fiction writers Patrick O’Brian and Conn Iggulden. Might? Nay. In fact he did answer thusly when posed the question by the Australian Literature Review in March. Chatting with that publication's Grant Hyde, Lindsay opined he enjoys the technical skill and detail with which O'Brian and Iggulden write.

“Every time I read Patrick O’Brian I learn something new technically,” Lindsay told Hyde. “Patrick O’Brian writes not just a great series but some of the greatest literature.” (Australian Literature Review, March 11, 2011)

Lindsay is the now-wealthy creator of Dexter Morgan, a helpful madman who inhabits a series of mystery novels and a successful series on Showtime. Morgan is a psychopath, driven to kill but kept in check by promises pandered to his dying stepfather, Harry the Cop. As a result, he kills only killers, with a particular panache for the pain of pedophiles.