Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 178 entries, all of them here in full.
August 12, 2014 · 626 words
And Then I Said No
So . . . the other day I said no to a contract from a major New York publisher. Not that it was a terrific offer or anything. There didn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm, the money wasn’t great, and the contract was non-negotiable. (Non-negotiable contracts are a thing now. Because publishers are […]
Read entry →August 4, 2014 · 76 words
Stripping the DRM
I need to bust me some DRM. It’s the DRM on my own work, I hasten to add. My publishers have ebook rights for North America on some titles, but I control the rights elsewhere. Easiest way for me to exploit these rights is to strip the DRM from the North American ebooks, then put […]
Read entry →August 1, 2014 · 60 words
I Am At Bubonicon
I am at Bubonicon 46, New Mexico’s longest-lasting science fiction convention. (It’s lasted nearly as long as I have.) So I’ll be in Albuquerque for the weekend, hanging out with convention mascot Perry Rodent (pictured right), and therefore not posting for a while. If you’re in the Greater New Mexico area, please come
Read entry →August 1, 2014 · 86 words
I Haz a Newsletter
So now I’ve got a newsletter, to which I urge you to subscribe. Because though the same announcements will probably appear here, the newsletter will turn up in your inbox instantly, and you won’t have to even turn on your browser. I promise not to send you a whole lot of crappy spam. Or even non-crappy […]
Read entry →July 30, 2014 · 93 words
Double Vision
Two covers for the Italian translation of my story “Reincarnation Day,” by the artist Tiziano Cremonini. I’m sure you’ve all read the story so many times that you’re practically memorized it, but if it’s somehow escaped your attention, it’s about a society in which children raised in a virtual environment are incarnate
Read entry →July 26, 2014 · 1,790 words
Amazonia
Amazon has admitted to a second quarter loss of $126 million. Which is not a lot on revenues of over $19 billion, but nevertheless it’s bad news for Hachette and any other Amazon suppliers, because it means Amazon is going to be squeezing every last little penny out of their suppliers, and coming up with […]
Read entry →July 25, 2014 · 683 words
News From the Doughnut
New details from the Doughnut, which is to say the second-largest European public building project of all time, which is to say the Cheltenham headquarters of GCHQ, the British equivalent of the NSA. (I should admit that these details are more than a week old, I just haven’t had a chance to comment till now. […]
Read entry →July 24, 2014 · 265 words
Stuff On The Market
So here we have Gaby Moreno, Hugh Laurie, and the rest of the Copper Bottom Band performing “The Weed Smoker’s Dream” with the original lyrics. Hugh Laurie does some fooling about after the song is over. The video is amateur and pretty well looks it. Originally recorded by the Harlem Hamfats in 1936, the song […
Read entry →July 17, 2014 · 467 words
Virtual Tee
We’re down to the last 24 hours of Toolbox, and Nancy’s been busy on her collection of Great Moments of Critique. Which I am now going to steal. Some of these, maybe, depend heavily on context. “You need to get more involved with the characters who are dead.” “I didn’t know we were in Hell–I […]
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