Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 55 entries, all of them here in full.
March 11, 2025 · 426 words
New Digs
We have finally got a moving date, so by the end of the month we’ll be in our new apartment in Albuquerque! Yes, after a 30-year rural idyll, we’re leaving our blissful, well-appointed country house for a place in the big city! What motivated all this? Well— it was time. After three decades we were […]
Read entry →March 6, 2025 · 44 words
Proclaiming
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s David Tennant’s exuberant opening for this year’s BAFTA awards. For those looking for a wee bit of relief from out country’s incessant drumbeat of madness and doom. (Maybe it’s not so doomy in Britain.) WARNING: Scottish accents.
Read entry →March 2, 2025 · 285 words
Side Deal
Here we are back at the Grand Canyon. Center left, you can see a side canyon striking off to the distant north rim. This is near a place called Grandview, which was the site of the canyon’s only hotel from 1893. Pete Berry had arrived as a miner, but found lodging more profitable. He built […]
Read entry →February 28, 2025 · 494 words
On the Rim
Here’s a view from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. I don’t remember quite where. The canyon is probably twelve or fifteen miles broad at this point, and what you see of the geology is complex. I’d been to the North Rim in 2008, but I’d last been on the South Rim in 1977, when I […]
Read entry →February 27, 2025 · 279 words
Travels with Fred
A couple weeks ago we returned from a five day trip to the Grand Canyon. Since then I’ve been inundated with Stuff That Must Be Done, most of which is bullshit, wastes my time, and provides no sense of accomplishment when completed. And I’ve yet to start the taxes, which is the bullshit doubled and […]
Read entry →February 18, 2025 · 71 words
Save a Few
Nobody bothered to tell me this, but due to a fortunate accident I discovered that Amazon is running a $1.99 special on the latest Praxis novel, Imperium Restored. The other ebook sites will generally follow Amazon and cut their own prices, so if you don’t have an Amazon account, check your favorite ebook retailer for
Read entry →February 18, 2025 · 133 words
The Toolbox Strikes Again
Shen Tao (Taos Toolbox ’23) has sold her first novel in a number of markets, mostly at auction. After workshopping The Poet Empress at Toolbox, she finished the book, went straight out and got an agent, and then started collecting advances. A seven-figure advance in the States, a six-figure advance in Britain, another
Read entry →February 1, 2025 · 148 words
Cruising
Here’s a spotted eagle ray cruising over the reef in the Turks and/or Caicos, 2016. Eagle rays are impressive, with their ten-foot wing span, but they don’t hang around for long. They’re both fast and shy, and if they see divers in their vicinity, they’re out of sight very quickly. They’re pelagic fishes, living in [&h
Read entry →January 22, 2025 · 199 words
London Broil!
So what to do with a beef round roast? It’s tough, it’s very lean, and it can be kind of flavorless. Yet roasts can be comfort food, and comfort is what I’d kind of like given recent events, which include freezing weather for the last week, and a tomorrow promised to remain below freezing all […]
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