Philip Brewer
I write science fiction and fantasy stories.
I also write about personal finance and frugality for Wise Bread.
I speak Esperanto, and use it to communicate internationally. Esperantistoj, legu mian esperantan hejmpaĝon.
Personal finance articles (at Wise Bread)- Interesting stuff
Tag Archives: writing
Fictional characters getting in shape
I’m a huge fan of a particular sort of scenes in stories—the scenes where the hero gets into shape. I was reminded of this recently, after reading Greg Rucka’s Critical Space, a thriller I read after it was mentioned by … Continue reading
Again with the writing daily
I think the first advice I ever got from a writer about writing was that I should write every day. It’s also probably the best advice. It’s certainly the most common. In any case, it’s advice that I accept. Writing … Continue reading
Finished the demon story
For the first time in far too long I finished a draft of a story and sent it out to the Incognitos and a couple other first readers. The working title of this story is “the demon story” and it … Continue reading
Writing in 2012
I didn’t sell any new stories in 2012, but I did have two reprint sales: My story “Watch Bees” was reprinted in translation in the Russian magazine Esli (in the April issue, which isn’t up on their website yet). My … Continue reading
My shameful integer posts—and my shameless ones
You know what integer posts are—the ones where the title starts with an integer. I scorn them when I’m reading, so I tend not to write them. I’ve ended up writing a few, though. Seriously—sometimes they just pop out. I … Continue reading
Mixed success at being monomaniacal
I like to joke that I no longer multitask at more than one thing at a time.
Related to that, I recognized years ago that a certain amount of monomaniacal focus was really useful for successfully completing a large project (such as a novel), but that being able to focus on more than just one thing was important to being more broadly successful. Continue reading
Another Champaign-Urbana writers group!
I just discovered another Champaign-Urbana area writers group for writers of speculative fiction, calling themselves All Writes Reserved. How did I not know this? In any case, it’s great to know that there’s another group of serious writers of speculative … Continue reading
A slug of fiction writing
I told Jackie, “I want to get a slug of fiction writing done, and then take a nap.” She said, “Does fiction writing naturally come in units of slugs?” And I said, “Yes. The slug is the natural unit of … Continue reading
Posted in Photography, Process
Tagged fiction, slug stuffies, slugs, writing, writing rituals
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Daily routine of Vestricius Spurinna
I’m a student of daily routines. I like to imagine that I’m looking for good models for my own behavior, but that’s only true in an oblique way. By now I understand pretty well the structure of a productive routine; … Continue reading
Lunch boxes
I took this photo specifically to illustrate my latest Wise Bread post, which uses lunch boxes as an example in a discussion about how to choose between buying disposable versus buying to last. The editor ended up going with a … Continue reading