Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 207 entries, all of them here in full.
May 1, 2011 · 201 words
On the Beach . . .
We are spending the weekend in St. Augustine, the USA’s oldest European settlement. (As a resident of the state with Acoma in it, I am resolutely unimpressed.) We arrived in late afternoon, and then had to deal at length with a mixup in reservations (not our fault), so all I’ve seen so far is the […]
Read entry →April 30, 2011 · 465 words
Freefall
The shuttle launch was scrubbed due to an electrical problem, so now either it’ll be Monday or it won’t. So either we’ll hang around till then or not. And that’s where we’re at now, until we learn something different. Or not. Here’s the most coherent description of the problem I’ve found so far: “If there’s […]
Read entry →April 27, 2011 · 135 words
Endeavor Awaits . . .
Endeavor is waiting down at Launch Pad 39A. Waiting for me, among a few other people. I’ll be viewing the launch from the VIP area, as a guest of Col. Mike Fincke, with whom I had a brief conversation three years ago when he was commanding the International Space Station. This year Colonel Fincke will […]
Read entry →April 27, 2011 · 69 words
It’s 2011, Writers! Do You Know Where Your Toolbox Is?
There are still a few seats left at Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy. This year’s instructors are Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams, along with special lecturer Jack Skillingstead. (Last year a Toolbox grad won a Hugo award. This year another grad is up for a Campbell. You [&h
Read entry →April 27, 2011 · 156 words
Interviewed Again
Friend of the blog Tom Chandler interviews me over at The Writer Underground. For those of you who are tired of reading my interviews, let me cut to the chase: What I need is a claque. I need people not to suggest, but to insist that everyone read my books. Whenever someone’s talking about a […]
Read entry →April 23, 2011 · 1,206 words
Our Tribe (Gabba Gabba Hey)
So when did it become okay to write about our tribe? I am prompted to ask this question by reading Among Others, by Jo Walton. Which is about growing up as an Anglo-Welsh science fiction reader in the 1970s— the sort of person who reads Delany and Heinlein and Plato’s Symposium all at the same […]
Read entry →April 22, 2011 · 3,157 words
1983: The Writer’s Life
This is one of a long dang series of posts on my early days as a professional writer. But first, a confession. There were two versions of my post for 1982. The first relied on my memory. The second, in which I relied on my tax records for 1983, is the more accurate. (That’s the […]
Read entry →April 20, 2011 · 273 words
Dagger and Coin
Daniel Abraham writes unconventional fantasies like The Long Price Quartet and the Hugo-nominated “Cambist and Lord Iron” (available here in podcast form). Now he’s launched a new high fantasy series, Dagger and Coin, with its first volume, The Dragon’s Path. The packaging is rather conventional, leading you to believe
Read entry →April 14, 2011 · 1,340 words
1982: The Writer’s Life
It’ll be Tax Day in less than a week, and preparing my own 1040 has reminded me that it’s time for another installment of The Writer’s Life. As you will no doubt recall, this is Part Four of a series of posts about my early years as a writer, with my old tax returns supplementing […]
Read entry →April 11, 2011 · 65 words
Waldo/Herzog
That slash between “Waldo” and “Herzog” is meant to call to mind the slash between “Marat” and “Sade.” Because this is one extreme artist, Werner Herzog, giving his own unique voice to the work of another artist— namely, the creator of “Where’s Waldo?” May I just state that I’ve really enjoyed Herzog’s sense of h
Read entry →April 11, 2011 · 804 words
Jamoke
About a year ago I started drinking coffee again. I’d avoided coffee for at least 25 years, and for a very good reason: it made me sick. If I had coffee— even coffee ice cream— in a few days I’d come down with stomach pains, sometimes very severe, and they’d go on for days. This […]
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