Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 226 entries, all of them here in full.
February 28, 2012 · 57 words
The Clock Ticks in Traditional Fashion
Just a reminder that Orbit has put all ebooks of This Is Not a Game on sale for $2.99, but that the sale should end on March 1. So if you want to take advantage of this generous offer, the Clock on the Clubhouse Wall is telling you that you have only a few hours […]
Read entry →February 27, 2012 · 715 words
PayPal Puts the Screws on Erotica
I’ve always thought that PayPal was a useful service, and regretted the fact that they crashed every time I tried to log onto them. (Even when I tried to logon through other people’s computers, they crashed. It’s not the computer, it’s me. I am cursed.) Be that as it may, I’m not so sorry anymore […]
Read entry →February 25, 2012 · 485 words
Amazoniana
Our friends at Amazon have been in the news. First off is the fallout from their quarrel with IPG, the country’s second-largest book distributor. Amazon tried to renegotiate a better deal for IPG’s ebooks, IPG declined to budge, and now all IPG’s ebooks are no longer available for Kindle. Because IPG’s list is long on
Read entry →February 22, 2012 · 60 words
Get Yer Signatures Here!
Just to let you all know, I will be signing The Fourth Wall (and any other book you care to bring) at Page One bookstore in Albuquerque, this coming Saturday, February 25, at 3pm. There will be a talk and a reading as well. Please come, so I don’t have to sit there humming to […]
Read entry →February 21, 2012 · 872 words
Reviews Too Late: The Eagle
I finally got around to seeing The Eagle, which was one of two films released in 2011 that dealt with the disappearance of Legio IX Hispania north of Hadrian’s Wall sometime around 117 CE. (I offer a brief review of the other film here.) Which just goes to show you that when it’s Legio IX […]
Read entry →February 20, 2012 · 138 words
Meet the Billy D
I’m back from D.C. (where I gave a talk on Internet culture to an international audience with more credentials than even I can shake a stick at), but I’m jetlagged and feeling unmotivated and uncommunicative, so instead of me talking, I’ll let History do it, and introduce you to the most incompetent warship in the [&he
Read entry →February 17, 2012 · 62 words
Where’s Walter?
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve left home and currently am in an Undisclosed Location. I don’t want to say where I am, but if you’ll look at the accompanying photo of innocuous cherry blossoms, you will find that I have inserted a clue into the illustration from which the clever among you […]
Read entry →February 15, 2012 · 532 words
Death Narrative
You know, I really don’t want to notice this kind of thing, but the story’s become so ubiquitous, I can’t help but see it. So here’s what I see. Whitney Houston died a few days ago. Nobody knows why, and the results from the labs won’t be in for a month or more. But that […]
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