J.Yang has slummed it in the valley with the Wakefield twins; slumber partied with Huey, Dewey and Louie; joined Krakow in stalking Angela; and climbed every mountain with the Von Trapps.

Originally from San Diego, he's lived and traveled the world (okay, not all of it) in pursuit of that most elusive of targets -- inspiration.

He's authored and published a book, written for online and offline publications, and maintained a variety of popular blogs on subjects ranging from movies and technology to personal stories and amateur musings. He's currently busy working on his second book, a fiction novel for teens.

You can reach him at digitaljon@SPAMgmail.com. He is BFF with his iPhone so he should answer promptly.

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In Brief  
Sunday, May 20, 2007 : 11:12 PM : 0 comments

Just real quickly (I have so much to say about the weekend in Ann Arbor): The book and writer's conference went amazing. We started off at a beautiful bed and breakfast, tucked in a location on campus we could scarcely believe, and everything got better from there. I got to re-acquaint myself with the campus, marvel over all the changes, eat all the foods I was looking forward to, participated and watched some great panels and speakers, and met a ton of really interesting people. I'll go into detail about it all when I get the chance but truly it was an inspiring weekend. Here's some quick moblog pictures from the weekend.

We moved along to New York right after Michigan and we're so busy exploring, meeting, and just having tons of fun that I haven't even touched a computer in days. Yeah, days. I might be in withdrawal, might.

One thing that Lilly noticed was weird on campus -- aside from it being semi-empty due to school being out of session -- was that everyone now has (white) earbuds attached to their heads. It's forces you to notice everyone walking around in their own little worlds. It's hard to explain how such a subtle thing makes the people/students on campus seem so distant from each other. Where's the community spirit?

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Grammar Style  
Thursday, April 5, 2007 : 3:25 PM : 0 comments

Ever wondered how to properly use apostrophes, colons, semi-colons, and hey, punctuation in general? Check out this short primer titled, "How to Use English Punctuation Correctly," and become a pro. I've always been confused by colons and semi-colons and now that I know how to use them, I can't stop. I've become an over-punctuator; after a lifetime of being restricted to commas and periods, I'm now making up lost time. I used to score well in high school grammar class simply because I winged it; now I actually know why and what I'm using punctuation for -- sort of.

And for the "advanced" writer, "How to Avoid Colloquial (Informal) Writing." Or "How I Stopped Blogging and Started Writing." I'm still working on this one personally.

How many times have you been told to "show, not tell?" I'm barely aware of what this means, outside of the elementary school context, so here's a great explanation: "Self-Editing For Fiction Writers: Show and Tell." This book was recommended to me by an editor that knows exactly what she's talking about. Read on and figure out what narrative summary is and when to (not) use it.

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