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.
June 22, 2009 · 708 words
Outside Shot at an Oscar
The other day I found myself on the set of a low-budget film.In recent years I’ve become interested in video technology for the masses, and how nowadays you can not only make a YouTube video for the change you vacuum up from behind the sofa cushions, but an entire movie. I think the production budget […]
Read entry →June 19, 2009 · 878 words
Courage
I haven’t been posting for a couple days because, well, I have this life. I have friends, family, and a freakin’ job. All of this keeps getting in the way of my Internet! I realize this is overturning the natural order, but I’m all perverse that way. I’ve been following the Iranian revolution via the […]
Read entry →June 17, 2009 · 46 words
Mystery Pic
I was looking through the photo archives yesterday and found this. Which brings us to today’s puzzler. A genuine no-prize to the first person who tells me what this is. And— just for the record— “a leftover piece of Sixties psychedelia” is not the correct answer.
Read entry →June 15, 2009 · 463 words
Watching My Uncompleted Novel Go Down in Flames
Here we have a video of an Iranian paramilitary before and after he fired randomly into a crowd of protestors, killing at least one person. (Well, they did set fire to his building.) We can see his face. There are people watching this video who probably know where he lives, and who his parents and […]
Read entry →June 15, 2009 · 88 words
The Revolution, Televised
The revolution will not only be televised, it will be downloaded, remixed, Youtubed, Twittered, and set to a soundtrack by the Moody Blues. (Okay, I couldn’t bring myself to link to that last one.) On the unlikely chance that my Iranian revolutionary brethren are checking in at this moment, functioning proxy sites may
Read entry →June 14, 2009 · 276 words
Rectified
I have written elsewhere of my experiments with beer-can-up-the-butt chicken. It’s tasty, it’s ridiculously easy, and it’s a lot easier to clean up than if you used your grill’s rotisserie attachment. But there are drawbacks as well. It’s easy for the chicken to topple over and start a fire or get burned. I’m not sure
Read entry →June 10, 2009 · 872 words
Shortcuts Through the Ghetto
I was reading a fantasy novel the other day, by one of those “widely-acknowledged masters of the genre” we’re always hearing about, and the story had a familiar sort of shape.(1) Young woman moves into spooky old house in a small village filled with eccentric relatives and retainers. (2) Spooky things happen. (3) Heroi
Read entry →June 10, 2009 · 342 words
Planets Found and Lost
News from the World O’ Science:We may have seen our first extra-galactic planet. Micro-lensing may have shown that a star in the Andromeda Galaxy has a planet six times the size of Jupiter.The advantage of microlensing is that it works best for more distant objects, so it’s ideal for planet hunting in other galaxies. I
Read entry →June 10, 2009 · 130 words
Two More Appearances For Your Pleasure
I seem to be everywhere online these days. First, there’s an interview with me on Tor.com, wherein John Joseph Adams and I discuss This Is Not a Game. And next, TINAG is reviewed by Paul Raven on authors-books.com. I feel we should read This Is Not a Game as a genuine hybrid, an effort to […]
Read entry →June 10, 2009 · 56 words
My Book Fixes Computers!
This Is Not a Game can inspire you to fix your computer! Or so Zachdude reports over on My iPC. Getting your computer fixed is clearly one of the side benefits of owning the novel. More benefits will be revealed in time: clearly you need to get your copy now, if you haven’t already.
Read entry →