Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 207 entries, all of them here in full.
September 1, 2011 · 191 words
Dragoncon Schedule
I am off to Dragoncon at the unfortunate hour of 6:25am. Fortunately it’s a nonstop flight and I can sleep the whole way. This is the fourth convention in a row for me, and I’m surprised I can stay on my feet. Here’s my schedule. I seem to be mainly on alternate history panels, but […]
Read entry →August 30, 2011 · 60 words
Mostly Complete Ebook List!
I’ve updated my ebook list to a nearly-complete status! So if you’re looking for my work in e-formats, check there. Because some of my stories are available in anthologies that have been e-formatted, new stuff is popping up all the time, so the list can’t possibly be complete. But in the meantime, feel free […]
Read entry →August 29, 2011 · 573 words
Windy Newscasters
I spent the weekend enjoying myself at Bubonicon, but every so often I’d check the news to see whether Hurricane Irene had destroyed the East Coast, as our bold media establishment had been predicting for days. Of course the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall in the […
Read entry →August 25, 2011 · 381 words
Bubonicon Schedule
So here’s my schedule for Bubonicon, Albuquerque’s finest convention. For a gathering named after the Black Death, it’s had a surprisingly long life span, and is currently in its 43rd year. I’ve been to most of them, God help me. This convention will have more writers than you can shake a stick at, and […]
Read entry →August 25, 2011 · 469 words
Snob Burgers
To get a good hamburger I seem to have to pay $10 these days. I don’t eat a lot of our national dish, but every so often I get a craving, and then I go in search of that special taste. But the average burger is pretty pathetic— the meat isn’t high quality, and […]
Read entry →August 24, 2011 · 596 words
News From the Dismal Science . . .
So Moody’s has downgraded Japan’s debt. Zero Hedge, my favorite site for economic paranoia of all stripes and dimensions, offered a suitable comment: “What was that word Freud used when you are a weak, pathetic, corrupt, powerless, piece of anachronistic filth and instead of doing the right thing (for fear of losing yo
Read entry →August 23, 2011 · 341 words
People 3, Dictators 0
While I was in sunny Reno enjoying the Worldcon, another autocratic regime crumbled into the desert sand. I only found out when I turned on CNN Monday morning, but then regime c0llapse happened very, very quickly, within the previous 24 hours. An offensive by a largely Tamazight-speaking Berber force from the western h
Read entry →August 17, 2011 · 54 words
Question for the Group Mind
So here I am in this huge resort/casino thing, and to get anywhere you have to wander by hundreds of gaming tables. I’ve been watching the gamblers, and none of them seem to be having a good time. They’re all grimly working away at whatever it is they’re doing. Why is that? Any idea?
Read entry →August 17, 2011 · 91 words
Postcard Shot
I’m writing this from the Peppermill Hotel in Reno where I’m attending Worldcon. (And is the pseudo-renaissance decor ever tackeeee!) Yesterday Calgary writer Tim Reynolds took me out into Banff National Park. There was cloud and a lot of rain, which enabled me to take some spectacularly broody shots of the Canadian Ro
Read entry →August 16, 2011 · 55 words
Cruising With the Waiter
The writer Lawrence Schoen has been collecting stories from writers about their most fabulous meals. I couldn’t decide what my most fabulous meal was, but I did make an attempt to describe my most fabulous dining experience. Which lasted for over ten years, in two countries. Oh my god, the gumbo . . .
Read entry →August 15, 2011 · 173 words
All Good Things . . .
When Words Collide is over. I feel as if I’ve been talking nonstop for five days. I’m looking forward to a couple days in which I don’t need to talk at all. Perhaps I will communicate only by gesture. For those of you concerned about how best to spend your travel dollar, I can thoroughly […]
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