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.
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 […]
Read entry →January 22, 2025 · 99 words
Go ‘Pods!
A gorgeous nudibranch crawling along the reef at Siladen, Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes). Sulawesi is a paradise for nudibranchs, and apparently every other form of aquatic life. Nudibranchs are a type of gastropod, basically a snail that has got rid of its shell and survives by tasting really awful to predators.
Read entry →January 18, 2025 · 110 words
Monstre!
French pro-Axis poster from the Second World War. Churchill smiles at a starving French family while surrounded by the slogan, “Monster, you make us suffer!” Churchill looks more like a film comedian than a statesman, let alone a monstre. The poster is intended to encourage the French public to forget that it was the G
Read entry →