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.
January 15, 2014 · 383 words
Neal
Our field has lost another unique voice: Neal Barrett, Jr., who died on January 12th at the age of 83. I got to know Neal sometime in the early Eighties, when I was breaking into the field. I can’t say I knew him well, but I enjoyed his company and his wry observations, which always […]
Read entry →January 14, 2014 · 115 words
Award List
It’s award nomination season, so I notice other writers’ blogs are listing all their works published in 2013 just in case their readers want to nominate them. I’d like to follow suit, but the sad fact is, though I’ve been working right along, nothing of mine was published in 2013, all due to the vagaries […]
Read entry →January 13, 2014 · 121 words
Name My Sparring Partner
Thanks to Chris Fogel of the karate school, who was downsizing his home, I now have a new sparring partner! View him in his new home! (He’s an outdoor sparring partner, and Kathy thought he looked cold, and so better equipped him for the season.) Now the Century catalog says his name is Bob, but […]
Read entry →January 13, 2014 · 61 words
From the Karate School
“This stance is called ‘Fist Under Elbow.’” “‘Fist Under Elbow?’ That’s it?” “Yes.” “It’s not ‘Monkey Fist Shelters Beneath the Wing of the Phoenix?’” “No.” “It’s not ‘White Crane Feigns a Broken Pinion?’” “No.” “It’s not ‘Monkey Reaches Beneath the Bough for the Peaches of Heaven?” “No. It’s just ‘Fist Under Elbow.’”
Read entry →January 8, 2014 · 324 words
Coming Soon to a Refrigerator Near You
Bruce Schneier points out that the Internet of Things may well turn out to be the Botnet of Things. Hackers have started to target routers and modems, which are, it turns out, easier to hack than home computers. Routers use cheap, generic chips, and the manufacturers who make the actual router tend to use off-the-shelf
Read entry →January 7, 2014 · 327 words
Filmed in ShawScope!
Sir Run Run Shaw, the quintessential Chinese movie mogul, has died at the venerable age of 106. Run Run and his brother, Run Me (the names are Anglo-Chinese puns), shot their movies in Singapore beginning in the 1920s, and started a theater chain. With the $4 million in gold they buried during the Japanese occupation,
Read entry →January 6, 2014 · 146 words
Hard Numbers
My 99 cent sale for Brig of War is going along nicely. Got down– or is it up?— to #67 with Barnes & Noble and #115 at Amazon, and because I can look up sales figures I know what those numbers actually mean in terms of ebooks sold. So that’s good. Though, sadly, because I […]
Read entry →January 4, 2014 · 116 words
Stirring Sea-Saga Sale!
My historical sea-adventure tale Brig of War is now on sale for a mere $0.99 wherever fine ebooks are sold! Which is to say Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords. (I’ve got to say, Apple doesn’t make it easy to find my stuff. If you type in my name, it will say “no results […]
Read entry →January 4, 2014 · 60 words
Hereby Resolved!
If you want to be a writer, here’s a New Year resolution for you: apply to Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of fantasy and SF. We have a solid record of producing professional writers who sell and continue to sell, even in our current dodgy market. Resolve to send us your application. You’ll […]
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