Diana X. Moga

Diana X. Moga
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Book Picks

Book Picks

My Favorite Books From 2022

Good morning and Happy New Year to all! We spent a wonderful New Years Eve yesterday and last night by doing a lot of nothing. After another epic Christmas visit to Colombia, the four of us were happy to lounge around with full abandon for scheduled activities, binge watching Wednesday Read more…

By Diana, 1 monthJanuary 2, 2023 ago
Book Picks

The Beautiful Game Just Got More Beautiful After This Book

Brazil is out! Argentina hangs on by a thread! Spain has been out! And U.S.A….well, sadly, that’s old news now. As a family we’ve enjoyed the hell out of this World Cup cycle, and the timing couldn’t be better. This fall we just started watching Premier League and La Liga Read more…

By Diana, 2 monthsDecember 10, 2022 ago
Book Picks

‘The Killer Angels’ Book-to-Movie Adaptation is a Doozie

I confess that I finished reading The Killer Angels a month or so ago. I kept wanting to write about it, but decided what I really wanted to do was watch Gettysburg, the 1993 film based on the book, to tell you about yet another fantastic book-to-movie adaptation. But, alas. Read more…

By Diana, 4 monthsOctober 19, 2022 ago
Book Picks

How “Deep Work” Made me Drastically Reduce my Instagram Usage

Last month I read Deep Work by Cal Newport and what Cal had to say about work, focused attention, connectivity, email, and especially social media, had an immediate effect on my behavior. Cal’s entire body of work centers around technology, social media, focused attention, productivity, and other related topics. Deep Read more…

By Diana, 6 monthsAugust 15, 2022 ago
Book Picks

The Creatures in ‘Bird Box’ Are Dumb, But it Works

I finally picked up Bird Box, long after the 2018 hype over the Netflix movie adaptation, and the trending cultural references and hilarious memes about blindfolds. I thought it was an entertaining read with a fast-paced, linear storyline that’s airtight. There’s very little meandering or monologuing. Josh Malerman is not Read more…

By Diana, 7 monthsJuly 9, 2022 ago
Book Picks

Twenty-Thousand Leagues is not What You Think

I had Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea sitting on my bookshelf and decided to read it. The story isn’t what I thought it would be, plus it moves too slowly for contemporary readers. Same with the Disney movie staring Kirk Douglas. But, the book changed the Science Fiction genre when Read more…

By Diana, 8 monthsMay 30, 2022 ago
Book Picks

Pulp Novels Sell. Here’s a Pulp Novel ‘How To,’ Book

There’s lots of reasons to write pulp novels. One reason is that pulp novels sell, and a writer should never discount what readers want. If you’re a beginner looking for a quick book that will improve your storytelling, here is James Scott Bell’s book, “How to Write Pulp Fiction,” available Read more…

By Diana, 11 monthsMarch 9, 2022 ago
Book Picks

You’ll Love How This Book Explains the Internet

I came away after reading this book with an ‘aha’ feeling about the intenet. I learned about this book a while ago on NPR and it came to mind recently when I wanted to find a book about the internet. Or rather, the physical internet. This morning I went running Read more…

By Diana, 12 monthsFebruary 21, 2022 ago
Book Picks

The Blade Runner Novel Has an Odd Title

The Blade Runner movie is based on a novel with the odd title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This novel started the franchise with the original 1982 movie staring Harrison Ford, and more recently, Blade Runner 2049, produced in 2017 staring Ryan Gosling. The original novel is something of Read more…

By Diana, 1 yearOctober 5, 2021 ago
Book Picks

A Sampler of War Novels for Service Members

This is a short list of war novel picks for service members. They don’t all feature Americans, or American service members for that matter. But a little empathy goes a long way, and sometimes we’re not the best ones to tell our story. I’m switching gears from science fiction to Read more…

By Diana, 2 yearsJune 2, 2021 ago

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Diana

Hi there. I'm a writer and reserve military officer with a day job. I write fiction, professional essays on military topics, and wax philosophical about books and movies. I live in Florida with my husband, two kids, and two cats.

Merry Christmas belated everyone! I ran the Marine Corps Marathon today with guys from my Command and Staff cohort. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful course. We trained remotely and did some motivating, complaining and commiserating in our chat group as Marines do. None of us beat our PME instructor’s time, but it was still a blast 🙌 Here we are at our local Chinese restaurant earlier today. Why my kids have both taken to this posing, I don’t know 😆. I hope you’re all doing well. We celebrated my mom’s birthday today (she is also named Diana), and my uncle’s birthday, with a combo birthday cake. Penny took this photo of me in the patio. Happy anniversary to us ❤️Even though today is a pretty regular day, it’s a good day all the same. Here’s to sticking together through ups and downs, thick and thin. PME complete ✅ Happy Sunday, all. I have been sequestering myself from the internet these past few weeks as I focus on finishing this draft of my manuscript. If social medial taps into our instant gratification, reptile-brain, then book writing calls upon our think-deeply-on-something-forever-and-ever-until-something-clicks, brain. I did some work for the Marine Corps this weekend, here I am with my hubs and straight-faced child after I showed up for my dad’s birthday party. Be well 🙌. Happy Monday, all. I finished reading, “Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet,” this morning. I recommend it if you’ve every been curious about the internet. Blum goes through the history of the internet by way of all the internet’s physical locations. It’s surprisingly refreshing. For a space that feels so abstract, the internet is anything but. I’ve been reading this book lately and I’m only half- way through because it’s kind of a slog. But this is THE book, they say, about character archetypes and the mono myth. This is just a fancy way of saying that all stories are the same. I dig it. I buy the argument. Still all the mythology is a lot to take in, but it’s a must read if you’re into character archetypes and such.
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