Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 101 entries, all of them here in full.
March 21, 2006 · 829 words
Memories
I’ve recently finished reading one of those novels of adolescence. A pretty good one, too. Reading it set me to thinking about the strategies that we employ to view our own past, and the way we turn the past into narrative. It’s a given in this type of fiction that the narrator is passive. Experience […]
Read entry →March 17, 2006 · 332 words
Five Minutes to Live!
Whoah. Check out Five Minutes to Live, a collection of lost cinema classics. In their catalog we find: THE DRAGON LIVES AGAINSet in Hell (seriously) we find Bruce Lee going through an Egyptian like afterlife experience. Along his treacherous journey Bruce Lee has a major erection, befriends Popeye, and fights James Bon
Read entry →March 17, 2006 · 232 words
Be in my Book!
I’m donating two items to an online auction for the Clarion Writers’ Workshop. #1. Be in my book! The winner of the auction will have his or her name used for a character in my next work of fiction. (I do not yet know what that work of fiction will be, it depends entirely on […]
Read entry →March 14, 2006 · 489 words
Discovered
I haven’t been posting recently, in part because I’ve been busy with Authors’ Month activities. I’ve been a full-time, professional writer for, oh god, 27 years. I’ve been on the bestseller lists of the Times both of London and New York. I’ve won literary awards. I’ve been published in France, Poland, and Croatia (to n
Read entry →February 22, 2006 · 450 words
My Native Language
My native language isn’t English. The problem is, I don’t know what language my native language actually is. I was raised in a household where Finnish was spoken, but I never learned more than a few words, so I’m reasonably certain my native language isn’t Finnish. I had French in school and Greek in college, […
Read entry →February 2, 2006 · 642 words
Five Weird Habits
Ling the Merciless has tagged me with the Five Weird Habits meme. In which I reveal five allegedly weird habits that I possess, and then tag five other folks with the same meme. It took me a while to think of five weird habits, since they don’t seem very weird to me. And, now that […]
Read entry →January 28, 2006 · 201 words
The Caribbean Vacation Standard
I’ve been preparing my taxes, which is the sort of thing that focuses the mind on finance. And I realize that I’ve adopted a financial unit called the Caribbean Vacation Standard, which I recommend to all of you. I used to visit the Caribbean a good deal— once or twice a year. But now I […]
Read entry →January 24, 2006 · 407 words
The Forest of Incandescent Bliss
I’ve just read Cordwainer Smith’s Norstrilia for the first time in several decades. Smith was one of the Great Peculiars of science fiction, producing strong, intricate, highly wrought, highly weird stories that will never be mistaken for the work of anyone else. No one else had a mind like Smith. Sometimes one has the
Read entry →January 13, 2006 · 86 words
Rattlesnakes for Sale
Are you a cult leader? Do you have enemies that you feel must be punished for their crimes? There’s nothing that says “That crazy murder cult is after me!” like a rattlesnake in your enemy’s mailbox, but rounding up those snakes was always such a tiresome chore. But fear not! Save many hours of weary […]
Read entry →January 11, 2006 · 2,951 words
Last Call Poker: the Coolest Thing
The coolest thing I’ve been involved with of late is Last Call Poker. If you look at the site, you’ll find that it seems to be a place to play online poker. When you register to play, you’ll be asked to provide the day of your death. You’ve got to be dead to play Last […]
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