Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,174 entries, all of them here in full.
July 6, 2015 · 350 words
El Dia de la Marmota
Here’s a large, fat marmot that came up onto the second-floor balcony the other day. He remained in this pose, pensive or possibly praying, until someone came out of their room unexpectedly, at which point the marmot gave a piercing shriek and headed for the hills. Apparently he lives under one of the buildings. Taos [
Read entry →June 26, 2015 · 550 words
Words From the Yogi
The great Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was famous for his “Yogisms,” malapropisms that kept the sports press amused (and Yogi in the headlines). Things like, “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.” Which is amusing enough, but maybe I (and the rest of the world) have […]
Read entry →June 24, 2015 · 51 words
Write-a-Thon
The Clarion workshop’s annual Write-a-Thon is underway. First, you go to this page, and then you either write, or you sponsor, or both. The money raised helps to create scholarships for Clarion. Which is a six-week workshop that can really change your life. (I’ve taught there. I should know.)
Read entry →June 22, 2015 · 479 words
Two From the Toolbox
I’m gearing up for this year’s Taos Toolbox, which starts this weekend. But before I climb the mountain to begin my yearly two-week struggle for quality genre literature, I thought I’d pass on my congratulations to a couple Toolbox graduates whose books have recently been published. First up is Alan Smale, whose Clash
Read entry →June 21, 2015 · 268 words
Dad’s Day
Here we are at Father’s Day, and here I am, a big-headed blond Minnesota kid, with my dad. I believe I am helping him read a comic book. You can tell it’s Minnesota by the big heaping piles of white snow visible through the window. I’d like to thank my father for being gentle, understanding, […]
Read entry →June 20, 2015 · 949 words
“. . . And They Is Us.”
John Stewart, rocked back on his heels by the horrific events in Charleston, improvising, and unable to come up with a single joke, nevertheless manages more coherence and resolution than I could, even when I have time to prepare. Which is why he’s the TV star and I, obviously, am not. Not that I feel […]
Read entry →June 20, 2015 · 738 words
Waterloo
So we find ourselves on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. More than marking the end of Napoleon’s great adventure, the battle gave Europe 100 years of peace. Not that there weren’t wars now and then, but there was nothing that tore apart the social order and massacred a whole generation the way […
Read entry →June 17, 2015 · 324 words
Saintly Repose
Behold, it is the corpus of St. Celestini— taking a rest, I guess, from his holy labors in the apse of the cathedral in St.-Malo, where I encountered him last autumn. I have been unable to find out anything about St. Celestini— there is a St. Celestine, but he was a pope and was buried […]
Read entry →June 14, 2015 · 176 words
Scribble Scribble Scribble (eh, Mr. Williams?)
I will be signing copies of my story in the new collection The Change, edited by S.M. Stirling, on Monday, June 15, at 7pm, at the Violet Crown Cinema, 1606 Alcaldesa St., Santa Fe, 87501. I’ll be there alongside colleagues Diana Paxson, Jane Lindskold, John Jos. Miller, Emily Mah, M.T. Reitan, Keir Salmon, Victor Milá
Read entry →June 11, 2015 · 1,044 words
Signals from Fred
In critique, “Signal from Fred” is shorthand for those moments in a text in which the author’s subconscious issues a cry for help, usually by pointing out that the action doesn’t make any sense. A character might say, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it!” or “This was unbelievable!” or “I can’t […]
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