Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 181 entries, all of them here in full.
September 12, 2013 · 1,546 words
Spare Parts
So I’ve just finished Never Let Me Go, a science fiction novel from Kazuo Ishiguro, the British author of Remains of the Day, etc. A heavy-duty literary author attempting a theme common in genre fiction deserves, I thought, a browse. After all, Time thought this was the best novel of 2005. I’m not going to make the [&h
Read entry →September 6, 2013 · 77 words
North America, and the World!
The publisher has reverted my rights, so I’m happy to announce that my ebook of Implied Spaces is now available throughout the world via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. iBooks, Kobo, Sony, etc. will follow shortly, as soon as Smashwords finishes their “review,” which has been pending for a while now. (If your l
Read entry →September 5, 2013 · 377 words
Mediated
One thing that most struck me about Worldcon was how much personal interaction has become mediated, if not dominated, by social media. I frequently found myself in a group of people who were looking at email, checking their twitter feed, browsing Facebook, and sharing cute cat pictures and amusing Youtube videos, all w
Read entry →September 4, 2013 · 484 words
Grand Master
Frederik Pohl died yesterday, at the age of 93, just hours after he made a final post on his excellent blog. You might say he went down writing, an inspiration we can all take to heart. The news came as the San Antonio Worldcon was into its last hours, which left us little time to […]
Read entry →August 28, 2013 · 81 words
To the Alamo!
I’m off to San Antonio, home of the Alamo. Where it will be 99 degrees in the shade and 85% humidity, which would normally make me really grumpy, except that I’ll be at Worldcon, so I won’t care. In the meantime, please enjoy this video. Fortunately this comes from Japan, where sadism in the name […]
Read entry →August 23, 2013 · 250 words
On To Helsinki!
So there are three cities bidding to host the 2015 Worldcon, and one of them is Helsinki. And I totally want the Worldcon to go there. Because why? Because Helsinki is cool. (In this case, sort of literally.) Helsinki is a beautiful modern city, it’s in a gorgeous setting in the Baltic, it’s within easy […]
Read entry →August 22, 2013 · 518 words
Bubonicon, Worldcon Schedule
This coming weekend is Bubonicon, the yearly science fiction convention in Albuquerque. The following weekend is LoneStarCon in San Antonio, the annual Worldcon. I will be attending both, doing readings, signings, panels, and other appearances. Here’s my schedule, so if you happen to be attending either convention, you
Read entry →August 20, 2013 · 387 words
Droughtland
The ecosystem I’m living in is slowly dying. Climate change is just killing it. We’re in a drought that’s lasted since the early 1990s, with the respite of a few wet years around the turn of the millennium. (While I’m aware that every dryer-than-normal year isn’t necessarily, officially a “drought,” the cumulative impa
Read entry →August 19, 2013 · 45 words
Last Century’s Millennium
Here we find an amusing video from the 1930s predicting fashions for the Year 2000. You might find it pretty silly, but these predictions were a lot more on the money than the ones that said we’d get flying cars. (And love those cantilever heels!)
Read entry →August 15, 2013 · 990 words
Year Two
It’s been a little over two years since I started publishing my backlist in ebook format, so I thought I’d update you all on how the indie-pub revolution has been going from my perspective. (For the first year of this experiment, see this article which I wrote about it.) Firstly, almost all the novels are […]
Read entry →August 13, 2013 · 155 words
Spin Tricks
Taos Toolbox ended over the weekend, and in the days since I’ve mostly been staring at the walls, and murmuring to myself, “Guess it’s time to do the critiques.” On the last day Nancy and I taught a special class in spinning people through the air with the power of our minds, as illustrated by the photograph. […
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