Author Archives: jamesdmacdonald

Originally posted on Dr. Doyle's Blog:
Q.  I really loved To Kill a Mockingbird, and Atticus Finch was my hero.  Do I have to change all that in view of the publication of Go Set a Watchman? A.  Only if you want to. If you don’t want to, there are several good reasons why…

Originally posted on Dr. Doyle's Blog:
Today’s peeve:  breech and breach are two different words.  Breech refers to the rear end of something, as in a breech-loading rifle, which is one where you don’t have to shove the powder and ball down the muzzle with a ramrod.  Likewise, a breech birth is one where…

Originally posted on Dr. Doyle's Blog:
When it comes to the most frustrating aspect of the freelance life – to wit, actually getting paid for the work – this piece in The Toast nails it.  (The comment section is full of additional spot-on commentary.) The single most reliable and prompt payer I have ever…

Originally posted on Dr. Doyle's Blog:
xkcd on the use of made-up words in fiction. He’s basically right, too.  Unless you’re J. R. R Tolkien, and marinated so thoroughly in philology, literature, and Indo-European linguistics that you might as well be writing your novel in Elvish or Anglo-Saxon and translating it into standard English…

Originally posted on Dr. Doyle's Blog:
We’ll be at the Burlington, MA, Marriott for Readercon, which we’ll be doing on a relaxacon basis again this year (also on an extremely attenuated shoestring, thanks to the necessity of paying off this past winter’s even-higher-than-usual electric bill.) One of the things we usually do at Readercon…