samwitt.com

The thoughts and work of Sam Witt

Loving the Grind

I’ve spoken before about my writing career and how the first part of it hit the ground like a lawn dart and exploded into a fireball that almost took me out. I’ve spent years climbing back out of the crater that I made for myself, which has given me a lot of time for bitching, […]

The Dog in the Book

I am not a dog person. I don’t go all googly-eyed over every mutt that crosses my path and you’re never going to convince me that all dogs are awesome. I mean, some of those fuckers will tear your face off as soon as look at you and I’m kinda attached to my face. Others […]

Living With the Machine

A week or so ago I fell into a small stack of money, which I converted into an Xbox One because I am addled by technolust. It does some nifty things, what with the shiny new games and whatnot, but it does a couple of things that I find disturbing.

Get Back in Your Hole

2013 was a big year for me. I started publishing my work again (a short story and, of course, Half-Made Girls) and started getting a handle on some aspects of writing theory that hadn’t really gelled for me. I developed a twitter following, more or less, and got the ol’ blog rolling again. I marketed my […]

The Evil in Doing Good

On the surface, a hotel that gives away half its rooms every single night to help house the homeless seems like a pretty cool business. But let me point out why what the Hotel Louisville is doing should probably be stopped. Take a gander at the article and then follow me over the jump.

Gratuitous Christmas Gluttony

I’m not going to try and pretend that I care about what I shove into my cakehole during the Christmas season. If it’s got sugar and chocolate and maybe some salt, I’m totally on it. Which is why this recipe, which is terribly not good for you, just hit the top of the charts for […]

Here Be Dragons

While the Desolation of Smaug looks primed to do some serious bank this holiday season, there are other dragons preparing to cash in during the next few weeks. They’re kinder than Smaug, gentler. But they’re also more insidious, with a grasp that reaches further. And too many of us are walking right into their lairs, […]

The World Wants You to Fail

This post has been kicking around in the back of my brain for more than 20 years. It’s ugly and brutish and short. It’s also something I wish I’d been told growing up. And then told again in my twenties. And then one more time in my thirties, just so the message would stick.

The Gift of Crushing Defeat

As of one minute ago, NaNoWriMo 2013 is history. I had big plans, a full outline ready to write, and a clear path from start to finish. I was fully prepared to end NaNoWriMo with a victorious shout of “Hell, yeah!” Instead, I wound up with 10,000 decent words and a miserable, dejected, “Shit.”   […]

Breaking Riddick

I’m a big Riddick fan – there’s something about the big oaf that I just find extremely likable. The new movie is a return to the hardscrabble feel of Pitch Black, with Riddick struggling to survive in a hellish environment. It’s totally over the top, completely crazy (fixing a broken leg by jabbing giant pins […]