Blog
Keep up with Brand Gamblin’s latest thoughts and get excerpts of his latest writing endeavors.
Totally Mad
See this? It’s a picture of a seven-disk collection called “Totally Mad.” It has every single issue of Mad magazine from 1952-1998. That’s over 500 issues, running all through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and most of the nineties. By reading through this, you get a taste of how America dealt with ideas like Vietnam, the sexual revolution, the rise of the Internet, and other cultural milestones. I bought this about a decade ago for about $60, and have had it in storage for a few years. Recently, I came across it and thought...
read moreBrand’s First Law of Creative Works
Years ago, I was at a con, in a panel on intellectual property. At the time, I said, “If anybody out there can make a better ‘Calls For Cthulhu’ than I can, they deserve the right to do it, and I’ll help them if I can.” It was considered a magnanimous and surprising statement, and I stand by it. (Let me take a moment to explain my thinking) I consider C4C something I created. No, I did not create Cthulhu. I did not create the mythos surrounding him. Hell, I didn’t even make the puppet. However, I did come up...
read moreMy 2012 Writing Schedule
Last year, I created a writing schedule in January that I actually stuck to pretty well. Because of that, I was able to write several books last year and publish two of them. So I’m going to try it again here. This is my wishful thinking schedule for the year. If I do it right, it will let me publish four new books this year. Here we go: January – Edit Discount Miracles (DM) February – Send DM to editors. Record DM for Podiobooks. Edit Tumbler Sequel (TS) March – Record DM for Podiobooks. Edit TS April –...
read moreThe constant evolution of blog spam
As a computer programmer, I find that I’m fascinated by the evolution of spam comments. I mean, the first ones were blatant – “BUY MOAR CHEAP WATCHES AND VIAGRA!!!” After that, spam filters got better, so the commenters started avoiding obvious phrases – “BY MOAR CH3AP W4+(HES AND V1AGR4!!!” This made the spam filters broaden their blacklists, and made it harder to read. Also, spammers ran into the problem where blog owners would read every comment, and the human filter was just too good to get...
read moreSample from “Discount Miracles”
I just finished editing this section, and I really like how it turned out, so I thought I would share it with you lovely people.
read more“Discount Miracles” gets a cover!
I just received the final cover art for my new book “Discount Miracles”. Check it out! This is the story of a salvage ship’s crew who are marooned on a backwards planet. Left in a world where their science is seen as magic, they hire themselves out as wizards who help keep the prophetic promises of the gods. This cover was made by the Hugo-award-winning artist Cheyenne Wright. Now I just have to get the book edited, podcasted, and out there for the world to see! What do you think? Permanent link to this...
read moreWriterOS
I'm a self-publishing author, which means that I take stories from the germ of inspiration all the way to the ebooks of Amazon and the permanence of paper. . . I found myself thinking, "Wouldn't it be great if I had a thumb drive with all the tools installed already? When on vacation, I could use whatever system was nearby and plug it in, then continue my writing right where I'd left off." . . .
read moreMy little girl got BoingBoing’d!
This is a link to BoingBoing, one of the best megablogs out there. Also, this is a pic of my little girl’s Halloween costume, which is freakin’ awesome. http://boingboing.net/2011/10/31/adorable-minecraft-creeper-and-candy.html#disqus_thread Permanent link to this post
read moreDiscount Miracles
I know I don’t update this much, but we got some big news that I thought I should share. First, I finished my novel. This, my fourth book, is about a ship salvage crew from the future who crash-land on a planet that is stuck in the middle ages. They use their futuristic skills to make prophecies come true, at a price. The first pass is about 50k words long, and it’s current title is “Discount Miracles” Second, I just signed up for NaNoWriMo again. This year, I will be writing a sequel to Tumbler. The working title is...
read moreBodyswapping and having a soul
So, let’s talk about Bodyswapping. It’s a pretty common storyline in Sci-Fi. The basic premise is that a person’s conciousness can be transferred into another body. In “Dollhouse” people signed up to allow new psyche’s into their bodies. In “Gamer” people got paid to let someone else control their bodies. Heck, in Red Dwarf, one character loaned his body away so that another one could exercise it and get it fit. Lots of shows harp on this as a terrible thing, a loss of identity. But, all morality...
read moreAbout Me
Brand Gamblin is a programmer, author, and podcaster currently living and working in Maryland.
He is a Parsec Award Finalist and creator of the Calls For Cthulhu vidcast.
For those who want to support these books more than just buying a copy, the tip jar is here:
