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amber simmons

amber simmons has written 17 posts for Technical Poet
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Killing Me Softly

By amber simmons ⋅ July 23, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Every article I write is copyright protected the moment I make my idea visible and/or concrete. That is, for now.

Reviving Wisteria

By amber simmons ⋅ June 27, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

Website design has become specialized and exact. But sometimes I miss the old, magical web. I long to recreate it.

Viva la Vida

By amber simmons ⋅ June 19, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Be my mirror, my sword, my shield. Woah…….

A Little Cookie In My Blog

By amber simmons ⋅ June 9, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Writers are manipulative bastards.
I can say that, as a writer, though it is somewhat disingenuous, as I am primarily (though not solely) a non-fiction writer, and it is largely fiction writers who are the soul suckers of the universe.
I say that with the most love and respect, of course.
I am sitting on my couch, eating [...]

Writing They Will Remember

By amber simmons ⋅ June 4, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

If you read my last post, it might not come as a surprise that I have recently decided to take the bull by the horns and jump ship. (Wow, those metaphors don’t really work together, for several reasons. All the same, I’m going to leave that sentence alone, because the imagery makes me chuckle. And [...]

Something Wonderful to Write About

By amber simmons ⋅ April 17, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

It’s funny how quickly priorities can change.
I’ve been a writer my entire life. When I was a little girl, my mother used to send me and my brother to our grandmother’s house outside of Cleveland for the summer. It was a much anticipated trip, as going away to grandma’s was like going away to another [...]

The Interaction Design of Typography

By amber simmons ⋅ August 30, 2007 ⋅ One comment

In Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst suggests that thoughtfully designed type and an intelligently designed printed page do more than tell a story: they create “looking room” for the user, luring him into the words, into the page, into the discussion carefully crafted before him. Type, as a language crafted by history’s finest designers, [...]

The Mismeasure of Craftsmen

By amber simmons ⋅ August 14, 2007 ⋅ 3 comments

Yesterday, sitting at my desk reading The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (I’m always reading something different, usually before I finish a previous book; I’m afraid I have something like academic ADD) I came across an interesting story by Socrates. He was recounting a myth he wished to tell his people of their [...]

Free Culture and the Undead Art of Writing on the Web

By amber simmons ⋅ July 31, 2007 ⋅ 8 comments

This week:
A List Apart has published my article, Reviving Anorexic Web Writing
I read Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture: the nature and future of creativity in October of 2006 with something like rapture and soul-deep sympathy. In 1994 I was a freshman in college, and I latched on to the advent of the world wide web feverishly, [...]

Visual Media Storytellers

By amber simmons ⋅ July 30, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

User-testing terrifies me, because I’m always afraid that someone is going to offer mean-spirited critiques of my work. So far, this fear is completely unfounded. In fact, most user tests reveal very interesting thought processes. And most recently, one woman’s comment stopped me in my tracks and caused me to really consider my role a [...]

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Recent Posts

  • A Timely Raven: the conclusion

    November 11, 2008

    The final episode of A Timely Raven is finally complete, and plans proceed apace for the new web fiction project.


  • No Offense, But…

    November 7, 2008

    A candidate loses the election, gets drunk, and sends out the obligatory incendiary email to his friends, family and cohorts.


  • This Is My Children’s America

    November 5, 2008

    American Blackness has long sung doleful tunes. Today marks a new chapter in history, for our families and our country.