Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Dear Valentine, I miss you. You’re three thousand miles away. You’re in another hemisphere, where I hear you’re going to stay.   Dear Valentine, my heart is yours, despite the troubles we’ve known. Because good memories are golden and we’ve got by far way more of those.   Dear Valentine, my heart is broken, from  [ Read More ]

This is not a lecture. It’s an observation. And it’s not a self-aggrandizing post but I do need to give some detail on my own life to make the point, so I will. Recently, I saw Wayne Koons, a former Marine, then NASA Engineer, then pilot/astronaut speak about his education, his life and his faith.  [ Read More ]

Recently my friend reviewed my book at SFSignal. I never expect anything less than an honest review from reviewers, especially friends. Anything is unhelpful because people tend to see through it anyway and because honest evaluation is the only thing a writer can rightfully expect from anyone. You hope they love the book. It’s hard  [ Read More ]

I like to post things which are interesting on my Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, etc. I do it because they made me think and perhaps others will think, too. I hang with a lot of writers and smart people who like to think, so my assumption is, maybe they’ll find this interesting. Just because I post  [ Read More ]

Okay, it’s Write Tips day, I know. Mondays I always post them. But this week I don’t have one ready, and part of the reason is that I just can’t get suicide off my mind. I got news yesterday that takes me back to a dark time in my own life. When I was in  [ Read More ]

Well, 2011 is gone and I am as glad as anyone it will never return. I thought 2010 was a bad year but 2011 was so much worse. In may 2010, I lost my full time job. By the end of the year, my part time one also went away due to my out of  [ Read More ]

It’s been a while since my last Global Warming post, so I feel like making an update for various reasons. (Mostly because it’s on my mind at the moment.) The more I look into it, the more I remain convinced that the scientific community’s dogmatic attitude is distracting them from far more important matters. There  [ Read More ]

What do I want for Christmas? Well it’s the same thing as last year really. And ironically something everyone could give but most won’t. What is it? I want people to think about what they say and how they say it. I find myself subjected to hurtful hate against Christians and others daily on Facebook  [ Read More ]

True story. In college, I said “I’m never going to use Algebra and Calculus and you all know it. Give me a math class I can use.” They shook their heads, smiled at me like I was daft, and put me in basic math. We learned how to balance checkbooks, calculate interest, budget, etc. Best  [ Read More ]

I continue to be amazed these days by the inability of people to separate acceptance from agreement.   ac·cept·ance  [ak-sep-tuhns]  Show IPA noun 1. the act of taking or receiving something offered. 2. favorable reception; a·gree·ment  [uh-gree-muhnt]  Show IPA noun 1. the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement. 2. the state of being in accord.   While acceptance is sometimes equated with agreement, such is not implicit in it. And in a world of diverging cultures  [ Read More ]

I didn’t even realize this problem existed until recently. At the airport in Atlanta, I spoke with a college instructor who’s taught for forty years, and then I heard about it again at interviews for a job at a local university. Spelling and grammar are in serious danger. Ok, yes, this example is silly and  [ Read More ]

On my Facebook page, the other day, I lamented the fact that lost in the present debate over PC terminology surrounding the Self-Publishing v. Traditional Publishing debate are some good points about contracts, quality and other concerns. This led to a discussion between fellow author David Boop and I about what distinguishes good from bad  [ Read More ]

Boy, we live in strange times. That’s never been more clear to me than by watching the way some people blanch at the audacity I must have to put a real religion in my novel. The Worker Prince is the story of Moses retold as space opera. The story of Moses is a story of ideological  [ Read More ]

The United States was founded on common principles: above all, was a respect for freedom of ideas and ideologies, the desire for a place where people could be who they are, practice what they believe and live in peace with others who didn’t always share those views. 10 years after a day which shook our  [ Read More ]

 This is an essay I wrote after my 18.5 year old cat died. I got her in college and she was with me almost half my life. I was devastated by the loss and timing and I still miss her and think about her every day. I never sold this but gave it to my  [ Read More ]

My Grandma was an amazing woman–great cook, great teacher, great friend, and great storyteller. And oh how she loved for us to sit with her and look at pictures or books so she could tell stories. Grandma loved to compile scrapbooks just for the occasion. She’d tell stories of our parents as kids, of her  [ Read More ]

Rage Of The Behemoth, Ed. Jason M. Waltz, Rogue Blades Ent. The Black God’s War: A Novella, Moses Siregar, III, self Predators I Have Known, Alan Dean Foster, Open Road A Hymn Before Battle, John Ringo, Baen Shades Of Milk & Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal, TOR Sales & Sorcery: Tales Of Nautical Fantasy, Ed. W.H.  [ Read More ]

This blog is focused on writing–craft, business and careers. And part of any successful writing career is networking. When you work in a creative business, you run into a lot of people whose ideas and approaches differ from your own. Not only their approaches to life but to art, politics, religion, etc. My being a  [ Read More ]

I’ve always been a big believer in freedom. As a creative person, since I was very young, freedom was very important to me. The right to express myself. The right to make choices. The right to be in control. The right to have a say. The right to be heard. I believe 100% in freedom  [ Read More ]

One of the keys to good writing, writing which pops off the page and carries the reader away, is depicting characters’ emotions realistically. If we can feel what they feel, if it moves us to laugh or get angry or cry, we are hooked on the characters and their needs become ours. So how do  [ Read More ]

Okay, this is going to be a departure from the usual topics but tonight I just need to do this one for me. There was a woman I fell in love with. We met in the Portuguese Speakers Wanting To Learn English room on www.orkut.com January 2nd, 2005. We talked for the first time on  [ Read More ]

Okay, this is a departure from the usual focus of this blog. But most of you know I have been going through a huge crisis with my wife, Bianca. Bianca has Bipolar Disorder I, a serious mental illness which involves manic episodes in which she is very aggressive and angry and hard to control. Bianca  [ Read More ]

Last Tuesday, 1 month before our 4th anniversary, I had to put my wife in the mental hospital against her will for the second time. Bianca is a highly intelligent, gentle, sweet, giving, joyful person. But when her bipolar II flares up she’s angry, mean, arrogant, and mischievous. I woke up at 5 a.m. and  [ Read More ]

Today I got a petition in the mail which sparked something in me because it’s about an issue I’m passionate about: abortion. I’m not going to go into details here, because that’s not what this post is about. Instead, I want to talk about how much I appreciate friends who don’t share my view on  [ Read More ]

Because she’s awesome, and because she’s my good friend, I have invited Laura Kreitzer to be my first guest blogger here. Please read this very important post on the crime of human trafficking — Bryan Hello Literary-Folk! My name is Laura Kreitzer, and I’m the author of the Timeless Series and the Summer Chronicles. This  [ Read More ]

A tribute to my dear 18.5 year old first child who died a year ago in my arms. I’ll always remember the day she came home to live with me – so small she could sit inside my open hand, so cute I just wanted to cuddle and never let go. From day one, she was  [ Read More ]

In January 1989, while out in Los Angeles preparing to transfer colleges, I interviewed actor Ted Danson for my college newspaper because he was an alumnus.  During that interview, Danson discussed his passion for the American Ocean’s Campaign (now Oceana), which he’d  founded as an environmental-focused nonprofit to educate the public on saving our damaged  [ Read More ]

Since I wear my heart and my opinions on my sleeve, most people probably already know that I am not a fan of Obama or Obama Care. There are many reasons for this, most related to the fact that I believe the Judeo Christian values this country was founded on, and which even the non-religious  [ Read More ]