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.
December 13, 2018 · 391 words
Tall and Narrow
Here’s another photo from our 2019 calendar. This is an interior view of something called the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood— lighthearted name, that— in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded by a nihilist bomb in 1881. Alexander was progress
Read entry →December 11, 2018 · 315 words
Gifts for Readers #3: The Moons of Barsk
Looking for something to read over the holidays? Or something to give a reader friend? Here’s the third recommendation I’m making of a book written by a Taos Toolbox veteran. (And by now I suspect that, if your ambition is to write, attending Taos Toolbox might be a smart thing to do. We really do […]
Read entry →December 6, 2018 · 405 words
Gifts for Readers 2: Walking Through Fire
Here’s another fine gift for the reader in your life. Or for yourself. Sherri Cook Woosley is another Taos Toolbox veteran whose book appeared in the same week as my previous recommendation, Lauren Teffeau’s Implanted. Walking Through Fire, from Talos Press, wasn’t workshopped at Toolbox, but we workshopped the sequel,
Read entry →December 4, 2018 · 193 words
Gifts for Readers 1: Implanted
Now that we’re in the season for gift-giving, I’m going to start a new series of gift suggestions, all of them books by veterans of Taos Toolbox. You can’t have too much reading, right? First up is Implanted by Lauren C. Teffeau, available as a paperback, ebook, or audio book from Angry Robot. From the flap […]
Read entry →December 2, 2018 · 890 words
History-ish
I’ve been deep-diving into history here at Rancho Malario, first with the Amazon Prime series Las Aventuras del Capitán Alastriste, based on the novels by Arturo Perez Reverte. I’ve been a fan of Perez’ fiction for a long while, ever since The Flanders Panel and The Club Dumas. The Alastriste novels are a very good int
Read entry →November 29, 2018 · 78 words
Encore
Once again, I’ve published a journal of our adventures in the form of a calendar. This one covers 2019, and features major international holidays such as Alberta Family Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, Toussaint, Cinco de Mayo, Kamehameha Day, and my birthday. I don’t make money off this, it’s just something I do to share expe
Read entry →November 28, 2018 · 1,413 words
Spies and Spinets
One of the oldies channels has been running back-to-back episodes of The Avengers (the British one, with Patrick Macnee), and Danger Man, with Patrick McGoohan, both Patricks playing men named John. I remember watching the two Patricks as a youngster, and being enthusiastic fans of both. (Danger Man seems to have been
Read entry →November 25, 2018 · 91 words
Score
Yesterday my Brig of War sale went into overdrive, with an ad placed through Bookbub, which promptly sold a couple thousand copies (without, however, coming near the total required to reimburse myself for the cost of the ad). But the sale nevertheless managed to bring my Amazon ranking to #61, which placed it on the Am
Read entry →November 24, 2018 · 77 words
No Trauma
We saved ourselves untold amounts of trauma by not going shopping on Black Friday and going to the Bernardo Bird Refuge, right at sunset when the sandhill cranes were flying low, dropping their landing gear, and coming in to a soft landing. We saw hundreds of them, but oddly enough saw no other birds at […]
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