Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,180 entries, all of them here in full.
July 11, 2017 · 297 words
Literalize That Metaphor!
When I’m teaching at Toolbox, I talk about literalizing metaphors, but it’s always hard to come up with a concrete example of how that works. No longer. I’ve watched Hotel Beau Sejour on Netflix. This ten-episode Belgian-made mystery series, with dialog in Flemish, opens with teenage Kato waking up in a hotel room, to
Read entry →July 10, 2017 · 114 words
Migrant
This morning the neighbor’s tree was covered in African cattle egrets, a breathtaking sight. Since first appearing in the Rio Grande Valley forty-odd years ago, these migrants have multiplied and made themselves very much at home. Their numbers seem to have increased greatly just in the last couple years. The neighbor
Read entry →July 8, 2017 · 94 words
Tower of Dreams
So the other night I dreamed I was in the Tower of Definitive Editions, a giant structure literally built from the definitive editions of every book ever written. There was some kind of mechanism that would pluck the book that you wanted from the structure without either damaging the book or destabilizing the tower. (M
Read entry →July 6, 2017 · 704 words
Stuff What I Have Seen
In the past weeks I’ve caught up with superhero stuff that you all no doubt saw ages ago. I’d like to be more timely with reviews, but frankly my life is very, very busy right now, so I catch movies when I can. Dr. Strange. I missed this during the burly-hurly of last year, which […]
Read entry →July 2, 2017 · 47 words
O Canada
Happy Canada Day to our friends north of the border! In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canada being itself, I’m pleased to present a rare video of a celebrated Canadian performer jamming with some of her friends. The message is still timely, I’d like to think.
Read entry →July 1, 2017 · 718 words
Deer in the Headlights
Taos Toolbox is done. Over the course of two weeks Nancy and I delivered 18 lectures, read and critiqued 280,000 words of fiction, wrangled three superbly informative guest speakers, and drank lots and lots of coffee. I’m now at home, staring blankly at the walls while listening to a strange, high-pitched ringing in my
Read entry →June 27, 2017 · 138 words
Info Dumplings
Collected by Nancy Kress, here are a series of quotes from last week’s critiques here at Taos Toolbox. * “I like the info dumplings.” * “I don’t think she could take apart the time machine with a hairpin.” * “The hard-working proletarian hero saves the day over the upper-class creep–what more do you want?” * [&he
Read entry →June 25, 2017 · 84 words
Words for Clarion
Are you a professional writer? Are you going to be doing a writing project this summer? Sign up for the Clarion Write-a-Thon. You’ll write the exact same words you’d write anyway, and you’ll earn money for the Clarion Workshop, the world’s premiere workshop for science fiction and fantasy. Are you an aspiring writer? Y
Read entry →June 22, 2017 · 349 words
Beneath the Sign of the Bear
I’ve been spending the week at the 10th Anniversary Taos Toolbox, the workshop for writers of science fiction and fantasy. Here’s a photo of us beneath the bear, including fellow instructor Nancy Kress and special guest George RR Martin. I realized too late that I should have got a photo of us all lying dead […]
Read entry →June 18, 2017 · 100 words
7128
It’s Father’s Day in the States, so I thought I’d offer a brief salute to my dad. I’ve written about him in more detail elsewhere, but it never hurts to remind myself and the world in general that he was kind, supportive, smart, loving, and did his bit to thrash Hitler. I chose to live […]
Read entry →June 15, 2017 · 208 words
Angel Trees
For those of you who prefer your reading matter to be printed on dead trees instead of touch screens, I’ve got a great deal for you! A brand-new trade paperback of my novel Angel Station is now available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The book is pleasantly sized at 6×9 inches, with the highly readable text [&hell
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