Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,175 entries, all of them here in full.
August 13, 2008 · 74 words
First Observation from the Worldcon
Kilts do not make a guy look more masculine. It doesn’t matter how hairy his legs are. Kilts make a guy look like a tosser.The exception is if you’re actually Scottish and are in Scotland, and you’re a shepherd maybe or in a Highland regiment and are carrying a sword or an assault rifle or […]
Read entry →August 2, 2008 · 298 words
Noor
The Turkish soap opera Noor, with its independent-minded heroine and her romantic, supportive husband, is knocking the Arab world back on its heels. For the first time, apparently, Arab women are getting an idea of what husbands are supposed to be like. (Passionate, engaged, loving, supportive . . . and, of course, dro
Read entry →August 2, 2008 · 1,310 words
Sisu
Where have I been all this week? I hear you ask.The answer, alas, is not as lighthearted as the question. I have spent a week trying to cope with the world’s most fucked-up medical system. I have been coping with the sad business of committing my mother to a hospice facility. My mother was born […]
Read entry →July 25, 2008 · 676 words
Reviews Too Late: Saints and Soldiers
There’s nothing for setting the tone like beginning your film with an act of moral cowardice, just to let everyone know where we all stand. This we find in Saints and Soldiers, a World War II drama— “Based on Real Events” —which opens with the Malmedy Massacre, which as history (but not Bill O’Reilly) knows
Read entry →July 25, 2008 · 92 words
Digging Out
I’ve been digging out of the pile of work, odd jobs, repairs, and yard work that piled up during our trip out of town. The only thing that really matters to anyone, including me, is that I’ve revised This is Not a Game and sent the manuscript back to the fine folks at Little, Brown.More […]
Read entry →July 19, 2008 · 761 words
Lightning Strikes Twice
Yesterday I participated in a “plotbreak” session, in which I and some other writers got together to help plot another writer’s book— or in this case, series. This is one of the tools that our local writers’ group uses to, well, make our books so damn good. We had six creative minds contributing in the […]
Read entry →July 18, 2008 · 45 words
I Am Heard From Yet Again
Bookseller McNally Robinson has made available a lengthy interview with me. Some of the questions are not the usual out-of-the-box numbers, so I had to actually do some thinking in response.They have also very kindly made Voice of the Whirlwind a staff pick.
Read entry →July 18, 2008 · 158 words
Paintings in Oil
The world’s oldest oil paintings have been discovered in Asia, dating from the 5th to 9th centuries, well before the technique was imported (or independently rediscovered) by Europeans. The most heartening aspect of this news is that the oil paintings are at the Buddhist site in Bamyan in Afghanistan, where the Taliban
Read entry →July 16, 2008 · 59 words
Sylvania vs. Ghosts
Okay, a roundup of this week’s amusing videos.From Thailand, Sylvania helps you fight ghosts.Gorbachev saves Russian hotties from Stalin zombies with laser eyes, head stain, and a battle axe, causing a rain of Twinkies and popsicles from the sky.And, for those who haven’t already seen it, a lengthy chunk of the new Jos
Read entry →July 16, 2008 · 332 words
Top Ten
A few years back, Prospect Magazine inaugurated a yearly poll to name the world’s top public intellectuals. Basically, you type in a name and click. This year, the results were surprising.Who are the world’s top ten intellectuals? A bunch of Islamic guys you probably never heard of, led by Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen. The
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