Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,179 entries, all of them here in full.
July 2, 2024 · 345 words
I Cannot Walk
Oh, I can lurch. And shuffle. And I can dodder and shamble. I’m very good at hobbling. I limp, and I’m getting to be an expert at tottering. But walk normally? Not so much. The last month hasn’t been good to me, locomotion-wise. My knees, both of them, have taken up collapsing, fortunately not at […]
Read entry →June 12, 2024 · 190 words
Blowing Up
Taos Toolbox is three-quarters done, and a fine Toolbox it is. Every one of the participants is talented, and every one can have some kind of writing career if they want one. Over the weekend I blew up my left knee, by walking in a straight line on a sidewalk. I would have fallen had […]
Read entry →May 23, 2024 · 67 words
We Conquer KU
The Accidental War, Fleet Elements, and Imperium Restored are now available (for free, I believe) on Kindle Unlimited through the end of June. Because it’s the publisher arranging this— as opposed to a mere mortal like myself— the books are also available as regular ebooks on Amazon, and are also available
Read entry →May 20, 2024 · 250 words
Cured Meats
I’ve been at the Truchas Peaks Place the last week, at the Rio Hondo workshop with a group of my friends. For our first meal I provided a 16-pound Serrano ham complete with carving stand. The ham had been shipped from Iberia after spending 14 months curing in a Spanish cave. Here’s what it looked […]
Read entry →May 9, 2024 · 202 words
New Wheels
So after seven years with a Subaru WRX, I’ve gone and bought a new WRX. Upgunned with a 2.2-liter boxer engine that wouldn’t be complete without a ginormous turbocharger sitting on it. My old car was in good shape, and a used WRX is always in demand, so I got a very nice price for […]
Read entry →April 27, 2024 · 130 words
Pig and Veg
We’re in a campaign to empty out the chest freezer, which contains a lot of stuff that I don’t remember buying, and the result for tonight was this pork loin roast cooked with potatoes, carrots, and onions. You could think of it as a one-pot meal if it weren’t for the fact that it’s in […]
Read entry →April 23, 2024 · 624 words
One Way to Get to Pylos
Another picture from my 1980 trip. I’ve fled the freezing rain of Northern Europe for the Med, and here we find me on a rare sunny day. Greece turned out to be cold and rainy as hell, and one night I pitched my tent in a tree-sheltered hollow, only to have the rain start to […]
Read entry →April 19, 2024 · 359 words
The Small Rains Down Do Rain
Here I am in the UK in the autumn of 1980. I’m in Greenwich doing research for the Privateer books, and I’m standing in front of the clipper ship Cutty Sark. I seem to be an older and more weathered person than I remember. I seem to attract extreme weather whenever I visit Britain, and […]
Read entry →April 16, 2024 · 582 words
Maculate
“Damn.” Now that’s a word you don’t want to hear from your eye doc when he’s peering through his scope at the interior of your eye. And you really don’t want to hear his next line, which is: “You really can’t catch a break, can you?” The vision in my left eye has been deteriorating […]
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