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.
August 30, 2019 · 119 words
Westlake on Publishing
This from Donald Westlake: “Publishing is the only industry I can think of where most of the employees spend most of their time stating with great self-assurance that they don’t know how to do their jobs. “I don’t know how to sell this,” they explain, frowning, as though it’s your fault. “I don’t know how […]
Read entry →August 29, 2019 · 55 words
The Sands of Dingle
Sunset at Inch Beach, in or near Dingle. Fine golden sand, beautiful setting, and surfers! If it weren’t for the kids playing with their hurling sticks I would have thought I was in Monterey. I also had ice cream at the legendary Murphy’s parlor. The elderflower ice cream was particularly fine on a hot afternoon.
Read entry →August 29, 2019 · 1,554 words
Mere Observation
So I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had a kind of Theory of Dunsany that I wanted to put forth when I had the time, and I seem to have time right now. Because I’ve had a while to ponder the matter the theory has expanded from its origin point to a consideration […]
Read entry →August 23, 2019 · 130 words
Out of the Mist
These are the Skellig Islands off the west coast of Kerry, home to an ancient abandoned monastery, and the location of a key scene in Return of the Jedi. The Skellige Islands also feature in Witcher III, one of that game’s jokey references to cinema. (Another is an elven swordsmith named Hattori.) I’ve been back from [
Read entry →August 15, 2019 · 87 words
Flitting
Here’s today’s picture of a butterfly. The rollicking Wilbercon around Ireland is over, and I’m now in Dublin for Worldcon. I’d love to post my con schedule, but I can’t because I don’t have one. I’m not on programming, go figure. Whether I’m on a panel or not doesn’t signify, but it would be nice […]
Read entry →August 13, 2019 · 170 words
Big Boat
This is the flight engineer’s station on a Pan-Am Yankee Clipper, circa 1941, as displayed at the Flying Boat Museum in Foynes. (Flying Boat Museum! This trip is so geeky I want to swoon.) The flight engineer was kept pretty busy, having to nurse four big radial engines all the way across the Atlantic. (Or […]
Read entry →August 9, 2019 · 243 words
Behold the Mighty Leviathan!
This is the Leviathan, at 72 inches the largest telescope in the world from 1845 to 1917, over seventy years. She was built by William Parsons, the third earl of Rosse, on his substantial estate at Birr Castle. He subsequently used Leviathan to investigate nebulas, which he discovered were not vague blobby things in th
Read entry →August 8, 2019 · 574 words
Rhymes with “Rainy”
This is Castle Dunsany, home to the second oldest peerage in Ireland and to Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the soldier, poet, playwright, and fantasist who published under the name Lord Dunsany. Castle Dunsany is not normally open to the public, but we were privileged enough to rate a tour from the voluble and char
Read entry →August 8, 2019 · 236 words
NewStone
Here is Newgrange, a 5200-year-old tumulus constructed during the New Stone Age. It is younger than Carnac, just a little older than the oldest bits of Stonehenge, and much older than the Pyramids. The huge megaliths that make up most of the structure, and which corbel 20 meters upward in the burial chamber, were broug
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