Michael T. Starks

Author: admin

  • Priorities for Authors

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    We live in strange times. Of course, I suppose everyone does (for different reasons). I read an article about Craft vs. Content yesterday. I was particularly drawn to the following quote. Authors, for example, lament the fact that publishers will often only offer book deals to writers who already have established “platforms” (read: followers on…

  • Easy To Be Hard

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    While thinking about the musical Hair, I remembered that I had recorded another song from the musical. Here’s my rendition of Easy To Be Hard. After listening to a different recording, I realized something interesting about this song. Some of the lyrics that I sang do not show up in the other recording. Instead, “Especially…

  • Where Do I Go?

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    For a long time, I’ve enjoyed the musical Hair. Here’s my attempt to sing and play Claude’s existential crisis song.

  • Storytelling Rules

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    Many writers have documented rules, tips, tricks, and suggestions for new writers to improve their craft. Some of the books I recommend for this include Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, Stephen King’s On Writing, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, and The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. You can also find great advice from MasterClass.…

  • William Shakespeare

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    Is William Shakespeare the most extraordinary playwright the world has ever known? I’m tempted to say “yes”. And he has been one of my heroes for a long time. Unfortunately, I’m not able to recount the exact details of my relationship with Shakespeare. What follows is my best guess. In grade school, my class went…

  • Fear

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    Yesterday, I talked about the Unknown. Often, we are afraid of the Unknown. But it’s not just the Unknown that inspires fear in our lives. Fear is a useful emotion. It serves an evolutionary purpose. From a young age, we learn about things that can harm us. Fear attempts to keep us safe. If you…

  • The Unknown

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    We all tend to fear the unknown. I remember the first time I was in a lightning storm as a kid. It got very dark, and the rain got heavy. It seemed to happen fairly suddenly while I was walking home from school all alone. I was cold and getting wetter by the minute. I…

  • Marketing

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    I suspect that many people may disagree with this. I’m pretty sure that I don’t know what I’m talking about. But here’s what I’ve observed. Marketing tends to work best for people who have a SINGLE BRAND. If you’re just an author, and all of your online activity revolves around being an author, then chances…

  • Physics Theories

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    Have I mentioned that I LOVE physics? I particularly like learning about new theories that may be able to solve age-old problems. One of the biggest concerns in theoretical physics is that the Standard Model explains almost everything except gravity. The Standard Model uses quantum field theories to understand electricity and magnetism, the strong force,…

  • Victor Hugo

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    My all-time favorite fiction author is Victor Hugo. So, of course, he’s one of my heroes. While I can’t be certain, here’s how I think I found out about him. I didn’t learn about the musical version of Les Miserables until I was in college (probably in 1989). I initially listened to some of the…