Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 230 entries, all of them here in full.
March 22, 2008 · 98 words
The Newspaper of Record
I’m in the Sunday New York Times. Be sure to reserve your copy at your local Starbuck’s. It isn’t a rave review in the front part of the literary supplement, unfortunately, but an investigation on the state of the field following the death of Sir Arthur Clarke. Also quoted are Charlie Stross, Paolo Bacigalupi, and [&he
Read entry →March 22, 2008 · 355 words
New Car Time
Assuming that you’re a few bucks ahead in life, now is the time to (1) buy real estate and (2) buy a car. Assuming the bank will give you credit, which of course is the rub. Popping the housing bubble produced bargains, if you can find and afford them. And while credit is really tight, […]
Read entry →March 17, 2008 · 56 words
French Rights!
I’m pleased to report that the French rights to Implied Spaces have been sold to Editions l’Atalante, headquartered in the lovely, hospitable, and historic city of Nantes. All you francophones should be able to put your hands on a copy within the next year. Meanwhile, for those of you reading in English, here’s your li
Read entry →March 16, 2008 · 55 words
Happy St. Urho’s Day!
Today is St. Urho’s Day, a day for hard drinking, wearing green and royal purple, and cursing grasshoppers. It is not to be confused with the festival of that Irish guy, what’s-his-name. I have sent you all a St. Urho’s Day card, which you may access here. Illonen St. Urho’s Paivaa!!! (Happy St. Urho’s Day!!!)
Read entry →March 15, 2008 · 227 words
Sprint to the Finish
I just finished writing the sprawling middle bit of This is Not a Game, the current novel. The middle bits are always the problem. When I start a book I always know the beginning, and I always know the end. Getting from one to the other is sometimes easy, and sometimes it’s like getting from […]
Read entry →March 10, 2008 · 349 words
Ditch. Diggin’.
So in addition to karate kamp, I have a new reason for muscle soreness today. Kathy and I spent part of the weekend digging a ditch. Or rather, not digging, but digging out. Along one side of our property runs an irrigation ditch. We get precious little use out of it, since due to the […]
Read entry →March 9, 2008 · 53 words
Translated From The Russian
Here’s the best joke I’ve heard in the last 24 hours.Vladimir Putin and Russia’s newly-elected President Medvedev go to a restaurant. The waiter comes up and says, “What will you have?”“I’ll have the steak,” says Putin.“And what about the vegetable?” says the waiter.“He’ll have the steak, too,” says Putin.
Read entry →March 8, 2008 · 2,171 words
Tests
I spent Friday at the karate school, doing stuff. Doing lots of stuff. It was the quarterly organizational meeting, so the school was full of school owners and managers from New Mexico, Arizona, and elsewhere. So we started out with all the self-defense techniques, of which I have heard there are 749 (I haven’t counted
Read entry →March 6, 2008 · 162 words
War for the New Century
So. Heard of Henry Okah?Probably not. But he’s invented a new paradigm for waging war, straight out of a science fiction novel.The guy puts his army together from another country by cellphone, as if it were a flash mob. He has his own merchant marine to carry off his hijacked bunker crude, his own arms […]
Read entry →March 5, 2008 · 100 words
Brassieres of the Ancient Vikings!
According to the Scotsman, a recent archaeological dig has turned up evidence that Viking women wore metal brassieres. Apparently this ingenious technological advance was suppressed for a millennium or so by the Church. Archaeologist Annika Larsson sez: “The garments had an aesthetic lingerie effect as well as providin
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