Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,179 entries, all of them here in full.
July 5, 2023 · 1,566 words
The Laughter of Carthage
We return, after I’ve caught up with some of the sleep I lost at Toolbox, to Mediterranean adventures. Saturday was the worst day. Kathy’s COVID was peaking, and her ribs were aching and she was coughing continually, and I was a long way off and unable to help. I was exhausted and stressed and pretty […]
Read entry →July 1, 2023 · 125 words
On Their Way
Taos Toolbox for 2023 ended this morning, with all the participants flying off to their splendid futures. The two weeks were busy and exhausting and most of all rewarding. I’d like to thank Nancy Kress for being a wonderful co-teacher, and Emily Mah, Diana Rowland, and George RR Martin for being inspirational guest spe
Read entry →June 18, 2023 · 147 words
Reunion
Taos Toolbox 2023 started tonight, and Nancy Kress and I met our 18 new colleagues whose work will be our work for the next two weeks. But that’s not who we see in this photograph. This is the class for 2022, or most of it. Because they’re having a reunion right now, just as the […]
Read entry →June 14, 2023 · 1,193 words
Stream Away
“Everything became big tech — the Amazon model of ‘We don’t actually have to make money; we just have to show shareholder growth.’ Everyone said, ‘Great. That seems like the thing to do.’ Which essentially was like, ‘Let’s all commit ritual suicide. Let’s take one of the truly successful money-printing inventions in th
Read entry →June 13, 2023 · 134 words
Kanteles
Five kanteles! Four players! Lots of gorgeous harmony! Tonight’s diversion was Kardemimmit (“Cardamom,” I think), a four-girl ensemble from Finland. They began playing together around the age of 10, when the head of their music academy suggested they start a band, and now 23 years later they come to New Mexico. (Doubtl
Read entry →June 12, 2023 · 824 words
Akragas
Leaving the Bougainville in the harbor of Porto Empedocle, we headed up the hill to Agrigento, which in its heyday was known as Akragas, after one of the rivers that ran past the town. In Akragas’ glory years in the 5th Century BCE, the city gobbled its neighbors, controlled the middle section of Sicily, held […
Read entry →June 10, 2023 · 154 words
Price Rise Coming
On June 20, Amazon is raising the fees they charge for putting books in print. Which means that, if I want to continue making my pittance on print books, I’ll have to raise my retail price on the four books I have in print from Amazon: Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, Angel Station, and Investments […]
Read entry →June 6, 2023 · 755 words
Ponant
So there came the morning when Kathy tested positive for COVID, followed by a frantic hour that resulted in our separation for nearly two weeks. I went off on the trip without her, and she was condemned to days and days of coughing, confinement, and hotel food. My digs were rather more posh, and the […]
Read entry →May 31, 2023 · 604 words
Gastronomy
There are a surprisingly large number of Michelin-starred restaurants on Malta. Despite my devotion to gastronomy, I’d never eaten at a restaurant with a Michelin star, and I thought it was about time I did. So even though I knew that Kathy and I were going to be facing a week of very large and […]
Read entry →May 30, 2023 · 85 words
Launch Day!
A new audiobook launches today! The Praxis Triad consists of all the short fiction from my Praxis series, read by the dulcet Stefan Rudnicki. Because the stories were published by different publishers they’ll never be together in print, but here they are together in audio format. And Impersonations isn’t even short fic
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