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.
December 3, 2021 · 255 words
Time for Wolf Time
Friend of the blog Marc Sobel wrote to say that “someone’s been reading Wolf Time.” That “someone” seems to be working at Microsoft, which has now made a breakthrough on using human DNA to store data, which was a significant element in my novelette. Microsoft, one of the pioneers of DNA storage, is making some [&hellip
Read entry →December 1, 2021 · 50 words
Quillifer for the Holidays
Simon & Schuster has kindly put the ebook of Quillifer on sale for $1.99 through the New Year, enabling you to keep company with Quillifer throughout the holiday season. Find it wherever fine ebooks are sold! And yes, that’s a new cover! It has things on top of other things!
Read entry →November 30, 2021 · 118 words
We’re Baaaaack!
Taos Toolbox, the two-week master class in writing science fiction and fantasy, has bravely donned its mask, taken its vaccinations, and announced its new dates, for June 6-19, 2022, in Angel Fire,NM. While there a few members of the cancelled 2021 workshop who have bravely hung on through the pandemic, there are seats
Read entry →November 27, 2021 · 191 words
Sunset Supreme
Today being a perfect day for it, we headed down the Rio Abajo to our local bird sanctuary, where we watched thousands of our feathered friends flying in at sunset. Sometimes we see deer, coyotes, or wild javelinas (smallish boar), but no luck today. Instead, we saw colossal numbers of sandhill cranes and snow geese. [
Read entry →November 21, 2021 · 260 words
Drink Like a Peer
Last night we had some friends over for dinner, and I made the black roux gumbo of Chef Francoise Auclaire le Vison, along with a heart-of-palm salad dressed with remoulade sauce. The meal was made more delightful with the appearance of some custom cocktails created by our friend Terry Boren, who has spent the pandemic
Read entry →November 19, 2021 · 64 words
Things To Do on a Holiday Weekend
We’ve all got holidays coming up, so I thought I’d offer ideas for fun things to do with the whole family. For instance, if your family happens to consist of 21,000 soldiers, you can form an image of President Woodrow Wilson, as these warfighters of Camp Sherman, outside Chillicothe, did back in 1918. They sure [&helli
Read entry →November 17, 2021 · 231 words
Space Opera Soufflé
Taos Toolbox veteran Cat Rambo has dropped a new novel on us just today, folks! Here’s what she has to say about it. “Farscape meets the Great British Bake-off” is how they’ve been billing the book. It’s the story of a band of former mercenaries who’ve opened a restaurant on a space station and are […]
Read entry →November 16, 2021 · 1,729 words
La Ruta
Our last full day in Spain. We were scheduled to fly out of Madrid the next morning, and we already had hotel reservations in the capital. It had been a kaleidoscopic journey, dashing from one corner of Iberia to another, like a butterfly dancing from one flower to the next. It was necessarily a bit […]
Read entry →November 6, 2021 · 62 words
9648
A coffee shop in Málaga had these tiles explaining the drinks on offer, with a handy Latin translation for those who don’t speak Spanish. Someone told us “They don’t actually make all of these,” which I discovered when I tried to order a Largo and the waiter just stared at me. I wonder what I’d […]
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