Writing
  • Welcome!

    This is the official website and blog of D. Robert Grixti, speculative fiction author and indie game developer hailing from Melbourne, Australia. This site is a repository for his news and views, including instructional articles on writing, samples of upcoming works and the occasional book or game review.

    New posts usually appear on a fortnightly basis. However, breaks in this schedule -- depending on how badly the author is procrastinating -- are quite likely too ;)

The Best Way to Be a Better Writer…

This quote from the legendary Stephen King says it all: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Forget reading articles about writing, or how-to books, or getting other people to teach you. Those are all good ways to refine your craft, but … Read more

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Dark Edifice #5 Released!

The mid year edition of Dark Edifice Magazine is rolling off the (virtual) presses from today. Interestingly, the release of this issue comes almost exactly a year from when I first launched Dark Edifice in 2012 — so that makes issue #5 a special anniversary edition. It’s funny to think that just 12 months ago, … Read more

legionwood2

Legionwood 2 beta testing has begun!

As of this week, Beta 4.0 of Legionwood 2 is complete and undergoing pre-release testing. Selected beta testers have already been contacted and sent testing builds of the game to play. I’m confident that most of the remaining bugs and balancing issues have been squashed by this point, but having a group of testers run … Read more

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New write-up in Portland Book Review!

Sun Bleached Winter has been lucky enough to get a 3 star write-up in the US based periodical Portland Book Review this week. A few months ago, I noticed that they reviewed The Wrong Way Down by Jake Elliot – a book I’ve also reviewed on this blog — and the reviewer in question seemed to be both honest and … Read more

one night

One Night Walkthrough

If there’s two things you can always count on my email inbox to be full of, it’s Dark Edifice submissions and SOS messages from people who are hopelessly stuck in the One Night games. With that in mind, I thought I’d do something about it and begin a series of blog posts containing walkthroughs and hints for each game — … Read more

Un Chien

The Downfall [Short Story]

This story was originally published in an e-zine called The WiFiles (available here) in a considerably different form. This is a revised version that I later submitted as a creative assignment for a uni class on surrealism. I figured it didn’t make sense to have an outdated version up for display on the blog, so I dug … Read more

Robot

Rise of the Robot Publishers

Here’s a quick observation that comes to mind: writing as a profession is becoming increasingly automated. My creative writing professor was mentioning in class today how, in ye olde days of yore (before the internet) it was customary for new writers to attend book launches and writing festivals to meet editors and industry professionals just … Read more

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Sonnet of the Dead (more poetry)

So, this is what my poor blog has been reduced to, has it? Updates barely just managing to stick to the schedule, writing craft articles all but gone, and the last book review was written over two months ago. Something feels a little dead around here…perhaps even a little undead.  No, in all seriousness, I’ve just … Read more

ON4blog

One Night 4 Public Demo Released!

Well, it’s been a long time coming (I originally announced the game over a year ago), but the first publicly available build of One Night 4 is now available to download. This build represents all of the work done on the game’s mechanics and engine so far. It’s both a Proof of Concept to demonstrate the mechanics that the … Read more

litfic

Easter Goodreads Giveaway Winners

Look, it’s Easter! That time of the year when everyone I know gets a bit too obsessed with eating things shaped like little rabbits and chickens. It’s also the time of year when brains turn to mush from an overload of chocolate and sweetness and in my opinion, there’s no better way to recover from … Read more

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