Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 226 entries, all of them here in full.
August 11, 2012 · 723 words
My Olympia
Every four years, during the Olympics, I find myself almost caring about sports. (It’s not that I’m too good to be a sports fan or anything, I just don’t have a lot of time to be a fan of anything but good writing.) But now, as the great thundering $15 billion spectacle staggers towards its […]
Read entry →August 8, 2012 · 145 words
Pour Votre Plaisir
So, I hear you ask, why are there two dots over the second i in Aristoi? Because it’s the French edition, that’s why! Yes, I’m going international with my epub! I am pleased to report that the French edition of Aristoï, translated by our very own Jean-Daniel Brèque, is now available at Barnes & Noble, […]
Read entry →August 7, 2012 · 65 words
Behold! I Am Podcast!
Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing has made available a podcast interview that I and Nancy Kress gave at Taos Toolbox back in June, dealing mostly with the workshops. We are, as always, tremendous! There is an interesting interview with Michael J. Winegar first. If you’re impatient to get to Nancy and me, we begin about t
Read entry →August 3, 2012 · 931 words
Sailing into Your Corner of the Internet . . .
The Macedonian, the sequel to Brig of War, has tied up to the pier at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Feel free to come aboard. As you can see from the somewhat altered cover, I took to heart comments on the mixture of serif and non-serif typefaces. As for those of you who hoped […]
Read entry →August 2, 2012 · 483 words
Patriotic Gore
“Always a godfather,” Gore Vidal regretted at a christening, “never a god.” Alas yes, he was mortal. With him dies not only the last major writer of the World War II generation, but America’s last public intellectual. He wrote best-selling novels, he wrote brilliant essays, he wrote movies and television, he wrote Broa
Read entry →July 31, 2012 · 96 words
Macedonian 1.0
Here’s my first pass at a cover for the next sea adventure. Some of you quite intelligently suggested a period font for Brig of War, and I tried it both with BoW and this. Alas, there is a reason that people felt it necessary to invent new fonts. The old ones just didn’t carry the […]
Read entry →July 31, 2012 · 1,112 words
Son, That Brig Has Sailed
Brig of War, aka The Raider, is now live at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Please download and enjoy. They are DRM-free, as are all my reissued ebooks. It was fascinating revisiting this book, which I haven’t read since I last corrected the proofs. It was almost like discovering the writing of a stranger. [&
Read entry →July 29, 2012 · 953 words
Maometto Secundo
The other night I found myself at the Santa Fe Opera watching, and more importantly listening to, Maometto II, a Rossini opera, performed with its original score for the first time since 1820. The opera wasn’t a big hit in its first performance in that year. It’s completely sung-through, which was pretty radical for th
Read entry →July 29, 2012 · 235 words
Brave New World
What you’re looking at here is apparently the world’s first printed firearm. It may look a little odd, but that’s because it’s the receiver for an AR15 semiautomatic assault weapon with a pistol barrel attached. The receiver and its various components were created on a 3D printer. The barrel is actual metal: you still
Read entry →July 29, 2012 · 153 words
Devaluation
Now that the London Olympics are under way, giving television viewers the chance to view sports, like judo or archery, that they only care about every four years, we can brace ourselves for the inevitable editorials pointing out how the Olympic ideal has been debased by (choose one) nationalism, money, professional ath
Read entry →July 26, 2012 · 174 words
Version the Second
Right, here’s an alternate version of the Brig of War cover. The main objections to Version the First were the green and orange type— the orange in particular, I’m guessing— and the various highlights and shadows I added to the typeface. The green and orange were the same shades used in the art— I was
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