Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,173 entries, all of them here in full.
March 26, 2026 · 393 words
Beginning the Year of Pain and Mopery
It’s well past time for this update, but quite frankly I’m tired enough of living it without having to recount it in narrative form. Plus I was deprived of Internet for over two weeks, as the local router resolutely refused to connect to the computer, until just couple days ago the Guy from IT turned […]
Read entry →February 13, 2026 · 91 words
Boskone
I’m attending Boskone, my last bright fling at freedom before my first knee replacement. Here’s my schedule for them what’s interested: Fri 5:30 PM 1 Hr Harbor III 50 Secret Wars, Futuristic Espionage, and Lost Technologies Sat 2:30 PM 1 Hr Galleria – Autographing 220 Autographing: Theodora Goss, Michael A. Ventr
Read entry →February 3, 2026 · 53 words
Plunder for All!
Apple Books has put my Quillifer the Knight on sale for the criminally low price of $2.99 (regular price $15). I have no idea how long this will last, so you should plunder while you may. (The book shown in the ad may have a different cover, but don’t let that stop you.)
Read entry →January 26, 2026 · 72 words
Clear Skies
The winter storm that’s in the process of sinking the Eastern seaboard only grazed us, with a couple days of rain and one night of snow. By sunset tonight the snow had mostly melted, and the last of the clouds were scurrying over the mountains on their way to a rendezvous with Maryland or wherever. […]
Read entry →December 31, 2025 · 90 words
Cods
This is what the Australians call a “potato cod,” though in fact it’s a grouper. It’s one of a large pack that likes to hang around divers. That’s in one area of the Barrier Reef where divers were once allowed to feed the fish. That was decades ago, and the fish fed by the divers […]
Read entry →December 26, 2025 · 122 words
Feasts of Yule
Lots of meetings with friends this holiday week, almost all associated with food. Above you see homemade soft pretzels served with chile con queso and a fine dry red, the cooking bossed by Darcy and assisted by her large family, who very kindly adopted Kathy and me for long afternoon. Christmas Eve featured an afternoo
Read entry →December 3, 2025 · 333 words
Laying My Burdens Down
I haven’t posted here since the middle of October. Instead I’ve been, well, knocking down a series of piñatas that have come floating up one after another. Slow-moving targets, but each requiring a fair amount of energy to knock down In the last few weeks, I have: Finished drafting HEAVEN IN FLAMES. (Will probably requ
Read entry →October 16, 2025 · 420 words
Oyez Oyez
So today I filed the paperwork— actually an online form— claiming my share of the Anthropic settlement. Anthropic is an company which has trained its AI, called Claude, on vast numbers of books, song lyrics, and other stolen copyrighted matter, and which has now offered its victims $1.5 billion in compensat
Read entry →September 30, 2025 · 244 words
Naked Truth
I visited my physical therapist this afternoon. We were born in the same town (Duluth), and went to the same junior high school (Ordean). He was a year behind me and we didn’t know each other. My family left town, and he went on to become a ski jumping champion and twice a member of […]
Read entry →September 21, 2025 · 508 words
Mist
This is Prince Rupert, B.C., or so I believe. And yes, it was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles I and his principal commander during the Civil War. After the Restoration, Rupes returned to Britain along with the new king, and invested heavily in the Hudson Bay Company, getting so much […]
Read entry →