Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 187 entries, all of them here in full.
December 29, 2007 · 582 words
The Tropics. So Warm. So Lurid. So May.
Here’s another photo from our splendid little calendar. This was taken in 1998, on the island of Curacao— which, you will be surprised to know, is a part of Amsterdam, the city in Holland. Even today Curacao remains a part of the Dutch Empire, and administratively the island is a part of Amsterdam. This relations
Read entry →December 26, 2007 · 883 words
This Year’s Best Christmas Story
This story from frequent blog commentator InsightStraight. To advance this tale it must be understood by all that I havebeen, off and on and for much of my life, a bookseller. And I am as prone as most others of that breed to fanciful notions and antique behavior.So you will appreciate that when I dressed […]
Read entry →December 25, 2007 · 109 words
Happy Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday!
Here in New Mexico, we have many traditions for celebrating Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday on December 25th. We eat tamales, we stew up some posole, we light bonfires, we set little candles inside brown paper bags, and we decorate the graves of our ancestors with lights. I’m not doing any of that this year, I […]
Read entry →December 23, 2007 · 919 words
Three Little Words
So I have been writing along on the novel, and it’s going surprisingly well, thank you.Right up till this week, actually, when I encountered the part of the book described in my outline with three words. The words being: Their relationship deepens.Three words that imply a great deal, but that— like the rhetoric o
Read entry →December 23, 2007 · 121 words
From Storm to Storm
So I’m back from the Left Coast. I got to New Mexico just in time to be hammered by the same winter storm that had hammered California three days earlier. I feel doubly blessed. I seem to have a new, albeit temporary, writing job. A very intense one. One that I still can’t actually talk […]
Read entry →December 16, 2007 · 126 words
So— Who Are You Guys?
I’m going to be out of town for several days, having an intense series of meetings about the Reely Good News item I mentioned last week, and which I still can’t tell you about. (Honestly, if I’d known it would have gone on this long, I wouldn’t have mentioned it.)I doubt I’ll be able to […]
Read entry →December 13, 2007 · 295 words
Air Force Cyberspace Command— ooh-rah!
“It’s all-out cyberwar toe-to-toe with the Russkies!” In 2008, the US military will start to fund a new Air Force “Cyberspace” Command (which will essentially attempt to create an ability for the US to wage warfare within civilian information infrastructures). As is typical with most post-conventional military efforts,
Read entry →December 12, 2007 · 113 words
Taos Toolbox 2008
Once again, we are offering the Taos Toolbox master class in writing science fiction and fantasy, June 8-21, 2008. My co-teacher will be the fabulous Kelly Link, and there will be an appearance by special lecturer Stephen R. Donaldson. This is a “graduate” level course, intended for people who have already been to Clar
Read entry →December 11, 2007 · 112 words
Cioppino
Yesterday being a rainy, cold, depressing Monday, I attempted to cheer myself up in a way that usually works. With food. So I threw some tilapia, bay scallops, giant prawns, oysters, and clams— about eighty bucks worth of seafood, actually— into this wonderful tomato and white wine broth, and I made enough
Read entry →December 11, 2007 · 213 words
Rainy Days and Mondays
Okay, so Monday sucked. It rained all day, which is good for our environment and for the ski lodges, but meant I lived all day in the gloom.Then I got bad news— not about me, but about a friend. Which put a huge damper on the day.And then I fired up the computer and started […]
Read entry →December 9, 2007 · 60 words
O Lucky Man
So I got some really good news the other day.Really, really, really good news.Except I can’t tell you all what the news is, because things aren’t precisely nailed down yet.But it’s good news.Reely reely good goody good reely good goody reely good news. If I had time, I’d open a bottle of champagne, but I […]
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