Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 178 entries, all of them here in full.
June 3, 2014 · 506 words
Jay
I’m getting damn tired of writing obituaries in this space. It’s bad enough when I write about the honored veterans of the field, like Fred Pohl, who died full of years and honors. But it’s far more discouraging to write about someone talented and joyous and unforgettable who was taken before his time, before he [&hell
Read entry →June 3, 2014 · 339 words
In the Post
So today I find my prose in the Huffington Post. Not a political article, but a brief appreciation of a long-defunct TV show. Why? It’s all in aid of promoting Dead Man’s Hand, the Weird West anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. You’ll find a story of mine in there, but that’s not what I’m writing about. […]
Read entry →June 2, 2014 · 49 words
Sleepless
I saw this, and now I’m so terrified I can’t sleep. And when I do sleep, my slumbers will be troubled by nightmarish legions of identical roller-skating accordion-playing sub-debs singing the polka from hell! So I thought I’d better share this, because if I can’t sleep, neither should you.
Read entry →May 29, 2014 · 158 words
Time for Wolf Time
My novelette “Wolf Time” is now available for download on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords. And it’s a mere 99 cents! What have you got to lose? There was a period of my career when my longer pieces were regularly spawning short fiction, and this is one of those stories. When I finished Voice […]
Read entry →May 28, 2014 · 795 words
Breaker Breaker
There’s a Philip K Dick story which I read decades ago, and which I don’t remember very well, but I remember the key scene, so that’s okay. In the key scene, the protagonist walks into a dark room and reaches for the light pull cord that he’s pulled many times before, but it isn’t there, […]
Read entry →May 28, 2014 · 627 words
Vodka and Vikings
I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Eastern Europe, but if you ever go, there are certain conventions that should be observed. One of them being that at some point you have to go out and drink lots of vodka with the locals. Lots of vodka. Lots and lots of vodka. […]
Read entry →May 24, 2014 · 373 words
Tightening the Screws
As I mentioned in a previous post, Amazon is engaged in pitched battle with Hachette, the publisher of my Dagmar books, over terms of a new contract. And now Amazon has tightened the screws a little bit more. They are delaying the shipment of physical books published by Hachette. (My This Is Not a Game is currently [&h
Read entry →May 21, 2014 · 281 words
Police Pursuit of Happiness
So there’s this Internet meme of people posting their own homemade videos of themselves dancing to or otherwise enjoying Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy,” and there were six young Iranians who made a video and put it up on YouTube. In part they did it to counter negative stereotypes about their country. “To tell the wor
Read entry →May 21, 2014 · 438 words
Creationist v Creationist
Wow! There’s a big ol’ ruction going on between Creationists at Bryan College, which was founded in 1925 after the Scopes Monkey Trial, and named after William Jennings Bryan, who successfully prosecuted John Scopes (the Commie bastard!) for teaching the Theory of Evolution and corrupting the Youth of America. (Most pe
Read entry →May 15, 2014 · 188 words
Weird Weird West
One of the “lost stories” I wrote ages ago has finally seen print! (Seems like I’ve been reading from this one for years now.) It seems like decades ago that John Joseph Adams wrote to see if I’d contribute to an anthology of Weird West stories. I’d never written a weird western before (“The Last […]
Read entry →May 13, 2014 · 116 words
Snow Holiday
It’s still coming down hard, so we’re sticking to the lodge. Terrified that someone was going to pitch headlong down the steep outdoor stairs, and that their survivors would sue me naked, I sent everyone out this morning to sweep clear the stairs and walkways. Even though more snow is falling, I have done my […]
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