Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. This is his blog. He talks a lot about writing. And food. And pop culture. And his kid. He uses lots of naughty language. NSFW. Probably NSFL. Be advised.

First up, let’s get this out of the way — Puerto Rico is undergoing a humanitarian crisis thanks to Hurricane Maria. It’s not good, and it’s getting worse. It’s devastation, literally and emotionally, for the people of Puerto Rico — which, please remember, is an American colony that already gets the short-end of the stick, and it exists under a president that right now feels very comfortable railing about NFL players taking a knee to protest the oppression of black lives but who apparently has little interest in shining a... Read The Rest →

Making a video game is like working for a blood-thirsty dictator – you spend a lot of time validating the player, who just wants to shoot people in the face. And if there’s one thing Walt Williams has learned from working in the blockbuster game industry, it’s that nothing good comes of validating people who aren’t him. After his misguided attempts to become an air force chaplain, Williams made the bold choice to move from Louisiana to New York City to try his hand at becoming a writer. All it... Read The Rest →

I walk sometimes. I walk with the dogs. We walk through all seasons, down backroads, past farms, past barns, past fields. We walk over mower clippings, dry and dead leaves, and after a hard rain or a big storm, we walk over the jellied frog bits left behind. Today I walked and found a praying mantis climbing on my shoe, because apparently this is the Year of the Mantis. We are besieged. And that’s fine. For years, we have also walked over nuts and the hulls that once held these... Read The Rest →

Another mantis shot. We are inundated with praying mantises this year. So many my dog stepped on one while walking. (It was okay, to my surprise.) I daily help at least one mantis across the road. In just the past few days I’ve seen them on our fence, our mailbox, on various trees and shrubs. They are everywhere. Curiously, we’ve also had a (very welcome) uptick in honeybees and monarch butterflies. Why? No idea. I usually spy a couple monarchs a day. And honeybees — dang, if I took all the honeybees I’ve... Read The Rest →

So, every good story has an argument. It has more than a point-of-view — it has a point. Maybe it’s one you intend, maybe it’s one that crawls up out of the wet goop that is your unconscious mind. Who knows? Either way, the story exists and the story says something. It’s not an obvious thing. It’s more the plumbing behind the walls than the walls themselves. But it’s there. Whispering its message through the vents. That’s a story’s theme. Today, I’m going to give you a theme. And you’re (duh)... Read The Rest →

Nearly ten years ago, two LOST geeks decided to start a book review blog. They determined that together they would read the latest and greatest releases in genre fiction and aspired to post at least one review a week each. Most importantly, they were eager to create a conversational space dedicated to discussing genre fiction online. Those two women — spoiler alert, it’s us — created The Book Smugglers. Since its inception in 2008, The Book Smugglers has grown and changed in many ways, from the genres of books covered... Read The Rest →