John Baker’s Blog

1. Why do you blog?
Meaning only exists for the living. Writing is wasted information if no one reads it - it’s ‘dead’ information. It comes alive when living beings receive it. Blogging, of course, facilitates information transfer, thereby lending meaning, positive or negative, paramount or negligible, to whatever you write.

2. Which author and/or book has most influenced you?
As far as fiction goes, I would say George R. R. Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has an incredible way with characters, and his writing, although classified as “fantasy”, is completely and utterly literary.

3. Which three blogs do you most visit?
All Kinds Of Writing at allkindsofwriting.blogspot.com
Science News Blog at http://www.sciencenewsblog.com/
Discovery Channel at http://reports.discoverychannel.ca

4. Why do you read fiction?
I read fiction because it gathers up the short length of my entire life, presenting me at 5, 10, 17, and 27 on the threshold of a new, albeit abstract, experience. This is not an attempt at profundity. This truly happens. The 5-year old in me has an opinion just as much as the 27-year old does. And if I indulge long enough in a book, somewhere far off through a hazy fog there is an ancient, 90-year old yet-to-be self who has an opinion too. Books that can transcend time in this way, and make you feel ageless, are really the great ones.

5. What makes you laugh?
My family. We are very close, and one of our strongest links is the ability to incite riotous laughter at the cellular level. When you can laugh so hard your atoms shake, well . . . I suppose if one had to choose a moment to die, atom-roaring would be it.

Jonathan M. Dobson blogs at Fixtion, which can be found here: fictionfix.blogspot.com

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