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.
May 20, 2019 · 557 words
I Fail to Achieve Divinity
So it was a gloomy day on this gloomy, ramshackle freighter chugging over a gray, listless sea. The freighter was this old rustbucket, World War II vintage maybe, 5000 tons or less. My fellow passengers were listless, and all they wanted to do was talk about their deeply uninteresting lives while rattling the ice in [&
Read entry →May 15, 2019 · 77 words
D&D
My life these days might best be described as D&D, by which I mean Dull and Dutiful. It’s not like I’m not accomplishing stuff, it’s just that the stuff I’m accomplishing isn’t very exciting to write about. Apparently I’m saving all my insights for a novel. While I deal with the dullness of my duty, […]
Read entry →May 10, 2019 · 415 words
The Rat Flew Straight and True
So I finally saw Avengers: Endgame, two weeks later than most of you. I made up for the delay by seeing it in IMAX and 3D, which I suspect really didn’t improve it that much, though I did duck when Starlord kicked the rat at my head. If this is the sort of movie you like, […]
Read entry →May 5, 2019 · 152 words
The Shuffle
A note for all you completists out there. The ninth Wild Cards collection, Jokertown Shuffle, has been reissued by Tor with new material, two never-before-seen stories by Carrie Vaughn and Cherie Priest. In addition to the original stories by Stephen Leigh, Lewis Shiner, John Jos. Miller, Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Mila
Read entry →May 2, 2019 · 205 words
Sport Xtreme
In my Worldcon GoH speech a couple years ago I mentioned Finland’s habit of inventing new sports, conceived I suppose in the winter when they have little else to think about while drinking. Finland is the home, for example, of swamp football, competitive sauna, and competitive hobby horse riding. Of course Finland is a
Read entry →April 24, 2019 · 55 words
10:32
Ten hours and thirty-two minutes of auditory pleasure await you! The Implied Spaces audio book has been released, and is available at your local store or online in the usual places. Apparently the book has been available for a while, but as I’m only the author, I was left to find it on my own.
Read entry →April 22, 2019 · 210 words
Terran Prize Awarded!
The Terran Prize for 2019, sponsored by George RR Martin and consisting of a scholarship for a foreign writer to this year’s Taos Toolbox Workshop, has been awarded to Chinese author Zhou Wen (昼温.) Zhou was born in Jinan, Shandong province, and has a double B.A. in English and finance, and a Master’s degree in [&hellip
Read entry →April 22, 2019 · 444 words
The Mead Story
A friend laid some home-brewed mead on us, and last night we opened a bottle and shared it with some friends who’d never had mead before. A strong, sweet honey odor and a taste to match. Pretty nice. All of which reminded me of the time I tried to brew some mead. I was maybe […]
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