The Z-Axis

Book Review: The Windup Girl by Paolo Baciagalupi

A dystopian future where genetically-modified food is ever-present. Where the rising tides of climate change have permanently altered human landscapes and agriculture. Where corporations and governments use biological warfare to enslave and oppress. Where political webs are woven and unwoven every day, with millions of lives hanging in the balance. Am I describing the Seeds…

A Minimalist’s Guide to Content Creation

By: Amira K. July 17, 2017July 16, 2017

Musings, Publishing, Writingblogging, content creation, digital minimalism, environmentalism, minimalism, reduce reuse recycle, writing8 Comments

When was the last time someone told you to “do more with less”? How about “think less, live more”? Or, “reduce, reuse, recycle”? When was the last time you saw an article about the tiny home trend? Minimalist design? Or a DIY Pinterest post about reducing consumption via, well, doing it yourself? Minimalism as a trend…

Bringing SEEDS to the Silver Screen: Part One

In December of 2015, I was being terribly impolite by checking my phone at Christmas dinner with my family. I glanced through my emails to find an unexpected missive from a man named Josh Tickell. I skimmed it and then sat back, stunned and suddenly incapable of participating in the banter around the table. I…

Mornings

By: Amira K. July 8, 2017July 8, 2017

Compositions, Poemsart, coffee, Laura In The Poppies 2, love, mornings, poems, Poetry, romance, Shawna Ankenbrandt, sunlight, writingLeave a Comment

Lazy on top of the sheets, dozing off again, your hand reaches out for my skin you sigh and roll over and snore The sun as lazy as we, languishing on our bellies You stir and touch my thigh and come closer You pull me in and in and in You make coffee and hand…

Book Review: The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness

By: Amira K. July 6, 2017July 17, 2017

Book ReviewA Discovery of Witches, All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, epic fantasy, fantasy, genetics, magic, reading, romance, science, vampires, witches, writing11 Comments

Have you read Deborah Harkness’s A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES yet? If not, why not? It’s okay if you haven’t. I’m late to the party, too. The first book was published almost six years ago and I didn’t know about it until last year. You could have asked me that question a little over a year…

Branding For Authors: An Overview

By: Amira K. June 19, 2017January 1, 2018

Publishingauthors, book sales, brand, branding, brands, chuck wendig, j.d. robb, marketing, nora roberts, publicity, publishing, stephen king, tahereh mafi, writers, writing2 Comments

As a writer and a winemaker, I think a lot about branding. Branding is critical for selling wine, because it’s impossible to know what’s in the bottle until you buy it and open it. Branding builds a relationship of trust between the buyer and the winemaker: when the buyer knows the brand, he knows the…

Book Review: THE SNOW LEOPARD by Peter Matthiessen, and THE GLASS BEAD GAME by Herman Hesse

By: Amira K. February 25, 2017June 12, 2017

Book Review, Musingsbook review, Herman Hesse, meditation, personal, Peter Matthiessen, reading, The Glass Bead Game, The Snow Leopard, writing, Zen Buddhism2 Comments

It must have been an act of supreme universal goodness that delivered each of these books into my hands at differently similar times when I needed them for differently similar reasons. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen I half-borrowed, half-stole from my sister almost two years ago when I was re-embarking on a journey I began almost…

What To Drink With What You Read (Political Resistance Edition)

Are you a #NastyWoman who has recently joined the Resistance movement against Trump’s fascist administration? Are you a long-time political activist with a renewed call to duty? Are you an ordinary citizen trying to figure out how to turn your Facebook activism into political activism? Well, you’ve come to the right place. In this post,…

Four Ways to Ease the Transition from Writing Fiction to Non-Fiction And Vice Versa

By: Amira K. January 10, 2017June 12, 2017

Publishing, Writingbusiness, craft, fiction, marketing, non-fiction, novels, publishing, writing4 Comments

So you’re a writer. You’re creative, right? You’re multitalented, right? You’ve got loads of ideas spinning around that ol’ brain of yours, and you want to bring them all to fruition. Whether as short stories, poems, novels, or creative non-fiction, you’re a writer with a lot to offer, and it’s time to turn all those…

Writing As Political Resistance

By: Amira K. December 21, 2016September 25, 2017

Politics, Writing1984, conservatism, donald trump, george orwell, liberalism, native son, political resistance, politics, resistance, richard wright, writing5 Comments

On March 24, 1933, the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic passed the Enabling Act, which gave the German Cabinet the ability to enact laws that bypassed the Reichstag, essentially conferring dictatorial power upon Adolf Hitler. On October 27, 1917, the October Revolution by the Bolshevik party established the Soviet government in Russia, a government that…