Books by J. Daniel Batt
Go and Build: Sentences as the Building Blocks of Fiction
My son is a Lego addict. At home, he has boxes and boxes of the tiny, plastic blocks. At school, in his aftercare program, he only gets a box of about one hundred Legos. Every evening when I pick him up he smiles and holds up his day’s creation with those one hundred...
“Run Like You’re on Fire” – Bewildering Stories
My flash fiction story "Run Like You're on Fire" is out today on Bewildering Stories. Go check it out: BewilderingStories.com. Here's a quick excerpt: Wake up. Keep quiet even though you want to scream. Don’t open your mouth. Don’t alert anyone that you’re still...
The Uncanny Valley: The Dangers of Dialogue Construction in Writing Craft
In the world of robotics, particularly android development, and computer-generated simulations, there exists a strangeness called the “uncanny valley”. The gap of the “uncanny valley” is created between when human features and behaviors appear very near to what a real...
Go Out and Watch: Observation as a Tool of the Writer
Let’s start with the end. Francine Prose, pulling us back along with her class, tells us, “Forget observation, consciousness, clear-sightedness . . . Admit that you understand nothing of life, nothing of what you see. Then go out and look at the world.” Writing is a...
The True Work of Writing
There’s a movement, maybe just a few but loud voices, propelled by the advent of easy self-publishing, that argue that writing should be fast and easy if you’re good. One of these proponents has argued that his mediocre writing isn’t so mediocre that it won’t sell:...
Henry Miller’s Rule for Writing
Writing daily can become arduous. I feel that Henry Miller's 11 personal rules are a great reminder for focusing on the task at hand. This is being printed out and hung next to my monitor!
Keaghan in Dreamside
Keaghan in Dreamside is now available on Amazon.com for Kindle. Download on your Kindle now! There is more to your home than what you’ve...
Video Trailer for “A Weighted Soul”
“A Weighted Soul” Now on Amazon.com
The living aren't haunted by the dead- the souls of the dead are haunted by the living. The drifting soul of a father and husband discovers that the afterlife isn't what any of us have imagined. Instead, he finds himself hiding in the darkest moments of his life on...
“The Stars Serve” now available on Amazon’s Kindle
The Stars Serve is available on Kindle now! A sequence of poems touching on the raw emotion and magic of the everyday life. Filled with more questions than answers, the poetry of J. Daniel Batt stirs the heart and awakens the mind. Take a moment, crack the cover, and...