Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,174 entries, all of them here in full.
December 11, 2010 · 54 words
Awesomely Awesome
What’s more awesome than a 2100-year-old astronomical computer found on the sea floor a century ago? A 2100-year-old astronomical computer reconstructed in Legos! And, for those of you for whom sheer awesomeness is not enough, here’s a 3D digital reconstruction of the original mechanism, complete with gear ratios for t
Read entry →December 10, 2010 · 221 words
Vicious Grace
This post belongs to my good friend MLN Hanover, whose new book Vicious Grace has just been released. Vicious Grace is Book III of The Black Sun’s Daughter, which (as you can tell by the heavily armed, seminude voluptuous female on the cover) is an urban fantasy series. Urban fantasy isn’t always my personal cup [&hell
Read entry →December 9, 2010 · 1,791 words
Villainy
No big secret here, but I’m attracted by dark characters. I’ve created characters like Sarah, Black Shadow, Caroline Sula, and Loren Hawn. I’m interested in shining light into the darker corners of their consciousness, interested in prowling along with them as they ghost about their desperate midnight errands. I regula
Read entry →December 4, 2010 · 1,124 words
James Frey Responds
Some of you may recall my post of a couple weeks ago, in which I lambasted author James Frey for the exploitative methods used in his fiction factory, Full Fathom Five. According to an article in New York, Frey was recruiting naive MFA students to write YA series while paying them a big $250 advance […]
Read entry →November 30, 2010 · 825 words
Glass Houses
Color me stoked about the WikiLeaks scandal. 250,000 classified documents, half a billion words, a look at the way the US views the world, unfiltered by press secretaries (though apparently the cables will be redacted by several major news organizations, including the NY Times). And what earth-shaking secrets have been
Read entry →November 29, 2010 · 74 words
Taos Toolbox
Just a reminder that the submission period for Taos Toolbox begins on December 1, only a very few days from now! Taos Toolbox (as if you need reminding) is a master class in science fiction and fantasy taught by Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, and special lecturer Jack Skillingstead. It will take place in Taos [&hell
Read entry →November 27, 2010 · 674 words
Flame and Citron (2008)
I caught this Danish film, based on the lives of two real-life Second World War Resistance heroes, thanks to Netflix. Since it’s based on real-life Resistance heroes, you know going in that this won’t be a happy film, because pretty much all the real-life Resistance heroes died. (Hey, I’m not telling you anything the o
Read entry →November 25, 2010 · 51 words
Things To Be Thankful For
It’s the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States, so I’ll be spending the day with friends, engaged in drinking and gluttony. Wherever you may be, have a happy Thursday. And feel free to feast your eyes on the UK cover for DEEP STATE, available in the English-speaking world this coming February.
Read entry →November 23, 2010 · 593 words
Mongol
When I was a child, Omar Sharif was my image of Genghis Khan. I had seen the big-screen Hollywood biopic, perhaps the last to be made in the tradition of Ben-Hur and El Cid, with Omar as Temudjin, Stephen Boyd as the villainous Jamuga, and Robert Morley, of all people, as the Chinese Emperor. The […]
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