Monte Cook's Blog, page 149

Conspiracy Research (Part 2)

Ah, the wonderful world of conspiracy websites. If conspiracy books are your friend who sometimes goes off on weird political rants, conspiracy websites are your crazy uncle who lives in the basement amid stacks of old newspapers, wears a pie tin on his head and eats nothing but bananas. With its low barrier for entry, the Internet allows anyone who can type (or can try to type) a forum in which to expound upon their craziest of ideas about history, government, rac...

Conspiracy Research (Part 1)

When researching for a book like The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies, you learn some strange rules, and perhaps a few truths. Amid all the crazy clutter.

A good researcher knows the "official story" as well as the alternate theories, so that means usually starting with standard history texts. It can involve also finding books on criminology and police procedure, science, and sometimes even mythology or the occult. But when you're done with standard research, you can...

Some Blogs I Read

I don't read as many blogs as I used to. I find that unless it's written by a close friend, I'm not going to read blogs that are solely a recounting of what that blogger did that day, unless its routinely sprinkled with some kind of interesting insights as well. And I'm really not interested in blogs that are nothing more than self-promotional tools, reposts of Twitter posts, or nothing but links to YouTube videos or whatever. I'm not saying those are bad blogs. They're just ...

Pure Spec

I'll be at the Pure Speculation Festival (read: convention) in Edmonton Oct. 3-4. Wolfgang Baur and Weregeek creator Alina Pete, among many others will also be guests, so if you're a rpg geek in the area, why wouldn't you come? I went last year and the people were so great that I'm going back.

I Miss the Future

When I was a young kid, growing up in the 70s, the future I was promised was mechanized, not digitized. Automated, not bluetooth. Machines were supposed to advance to the point that they would take care of my every need, perform all the menial tasks around the house, and get me places faster and more efficiently. Instead, I live in a future basically no one thought of back then, where information, communication, and entertainment has advanced in amazing ways, but I still have...

Release Day (in Advance)!

Although it's really not supposed to come out until mid-October, you can go down to your local Barnes & Noble bookstore and look to the huge display of Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol, and find yourself a copy of my new book, The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies right there next to it. (At least that's what I've been told you'll find at many stores.)

This is my first nonfiction book, although because of the nature of it, you might also be able to find it in the hu...

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

It seems almost impossible to review a book like this without some irony, but I'll do my best. I'd seen the movies, and been very aware of the book's omnipresent phenomenon, but I'd never read it until this summer. I can only imagine that the experience of reading the book now is different than it would have been when it first came out. Nevertheless, my experience is my experience, and for me, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a fine b...

Everything, Whenever, Wherever

Twice in the last day I've been chided for talking or writing about an old book or TV show. When this happened, I wondered, have we really become so now-centric that we can't discuss anything except what's brand new? Is there no room for going back and looking at something we may have missed the first time around?

And then it dawned on me. I wasn't being old-fashioned. They were. Today isn't about what's new. More than ever before (in my lifetime, anyway), it's no...

Book Review: The Man Who Turned Into Himself

In contrast to the last review I wrote, David Ambrose's The Man Who Turned Into Himself: A Novel is virtually the opposite of a pulp. And yet it's still a quick, easily digested, entertaining read. The difference being, perhaps, that this one will make you think a while after you put it down.

Some books can be described as always "being in the character's head," describing a work with a lot of introspection, internal monologues, and examination of ch...

Escapist Article

I wrote an article for the Escapist on being a player in the very, very early days of roleplaying. I hope to continue delving into this topic with future articles.