The slaying of writer’s block, Backflash, 361, and podcasts

One reason I haven’t been posting much lately is because I’ve had an acute case of writer’s block. You see, I read both Backflash and 361 recently, and felt obligated to write about them. It wasn’t working. And that was stopping me from writing anything else.

361 itself was partially a product of writer’s block. Westlake stopped about halfway through, started a book you may have heard of called The Hunter, and picked 361 up again later. So let that be a lesson to me.

Just because I haven’t written about 361 or Backflash doesn’t mean I don’t have any thoughts on them. This was my third pass through 361, and I blathered on about it at length with Jesse Willis in a recent SFFaudio podcast (Backflash was touched upon as well). My reviews avoid spoilers, but the podcast, being a more in-depth discussion of the book, does not, so be forewarned.

I’ll write up both Backflash and 361 next time around. I’ll happily take another dance with either or both of them, so this current case of writer’s block just ensures that there will be another turn about the floor. In the meantime, I’m moving on with a (mostly) clean slate.