Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 136 entries, all of them here in full.
March 22, 2018 · 466 words
Shrinkage
So I’m halfway through reading this novel when I realize that the author has been through therapy. There’s nothing good or bad about this, and it doesn’t affect whether or not it’s a successful story, but while reading I realized that therapy can be apparent in the toolkit that the author brings to the work. […]
Read entry →March 21, 2018 · 228 words
Facebookery
Via Bruce Sterling and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, here’s how to alter your Facebook settings to opt out of platform sharing. Facebook has allowed third parties to violate user privacy on an unprecedented scale, and, while legislators and regulators scramble to understand the implications and put limits in plac
Read entry →March 16, 2018 · 408 words
Standup
So in last night’s dream I enrolled in a workshop in standup comedy. Which, I should mention, I have never had any ambitions whatsoever to do. The workshop took place in a barnlike hotel in a place like the Berkshires, with snow and winter sports, and the woman who ran the place kept telling us […]
Read entry →March 9, 2018 · 780 words
Review Too Late: Nordic Noir
Over our long winter months, I’ve been watching TV set in brooding northern climes. How depressing can it get in northern Europe? Very, apparently. Bordertown. Netflix kept trying to get me to watch this, but I assumed it was set on the US-Mexican border, and I’m all too familiar with that. But then Netflix played me [
Read entry →March 8, 2018 · 184 words
The Muffin Conundrum
I have an important scientific question here. The answer may save the world, or at least my breakfast. I am fond of English muffins. (Or, as I believe they are known in England, “muffins.”) Yet these muffins have one peculiarity that I can neither understand nor condone. When I take a muffin out of the […]
Read entry →March 4, 2018 · 149 words
Slammed
I haven’t been posting here much, or posting anywhere really. I’ve been just a little bit slammed. I’m writing Quillifer the Knight. I’m working on Taos Toolbox. I’m doing my taxes, and going cross-eyed looking at all the little receipts that made sense months ago, but don’t now, and looking for the little receipts tha
Read entry →February 25, 2018 · 168 words
Sorry, Canada
So John Shuster and his buddies went on to win gold in the Greatest Ever Winter Sport, which is to say curling. The US has never won gold in curling before, but taking 5 points in a single end pretty well speaks for itself. On the other hand, Canada has never lost a medal in […]
Read entry →February 22, 2018 · 82 words
Samurai Hat
Over the weekend I went to Boskone, which was such a pleasant scene that I spent no time whatsoever thinking of ways to amuse anyone other than myself. And then I flew back and was ill by the time I got home. (Note to self, and to the rest of you: don’t ever order the […]
Read entry →February 14, 2018 · 399 words
Boskone
I will be spending the weekend in Boston, attending their excellent science fiction convention, Boskone. Since the convention is a very fine one, and it’s a large regional convention that is still about books, I urge those of you who can be there to attend. Here’s my schedule, for anyone who would care to connect with
Read entry →February 13, 2018 · 60 words
Carnival Time!
It’s Mardi Gras, Y’all! And to celebrate, here’s Kermit Ruffins from his Jam in the Van series, with “Drop Me Off in New Orleans.” And to top it off, just cuz I like the video, here’s “When I Die, You Better Second Line” from the series Treme. It starts a bit funereal, but doesn’t stay that way for […]
Read entry →February 13, 2018 · 53 words
Lords of All Media
Having wrapped its Joker tentacles around the world of mass media, Wild Cards is even more out there than it’s been up till now. Pinterest! Twitter! Google! Instagram! Facebook! Wherever you hang out, Wild Cards will be there. Here be the links: Wild Cards Official Web Site: http://www.wildcardsworld.com/ https://www.f
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