Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,174 entries, all of them here in full.
August 23, 2016 · 58 words
Homebow
We returned from Kansas City through a big monsoon storm, but once on the ground we were welcomed by what was possibly the brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen. It was raining and I was in a hurry, so this was the best angle I could find on it. You’ll note a second, fainter rainbow just […]
Read entry →August 17, 2016 · 350 words
I Am At The Worldcon
I am in Kansas City, at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention. If you’re in town, come say hi at any of the following events: Science Fiction as Epic Thursday 13:00 – 14:00, 3501F (Kansas City Convention Center) Often science fiction that is epic in nature is dismissed as “space opera,” but science fiction ca
Read entry →August 15, 2016 · 81 words
Progress
I’m pleased to report that my first science fiction novel, Ambassador of Progress, is now on sale for a mere 99 cents. You may find it at Amazon, Google, iBooks, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Ambassador of Progress is unlike my other SF, in that it’s overtly anthropological science fiction. I think it’s success
Read entry →August 12, 2016 · 70 words
What Rough Beast . . . ?
Oh noooo! What insidious monster do we see sneaking up on the Pride of Baltimore? Why it’s the World’s Largest Rubber Duck, created by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman! Which floats 61 feet tall and weighs 11 tons. Apparently that’s big enough to count as a Tall Ship. It would be fun to motor around on […]
Read entry →August 10, 2016 · 93 words
Aces Onscreen
Good news for any Wild Cards fans out there. Universal Cable Productions has acquired the Wild Cards series for television. Longtime Wild Cards writer Melinda Snodgrass will be executive producer, along with Gregory Noveck (REDS, Justice League: the New Frontier). Wild Cards has been a part of our lives since the 1980s
Read entry →August 9, 2016 · 954 words
Too Many Desserts
Friday night with the Tall Ships was a massive disappointment. I signed up for a “VIP Fireworks Viewing” from the brig Niagara, and they’d sent me a schedule telling me that food and beverage would appear on the quay at 8:30, we’d go aboard at 9:00, and the fireworks would start at 9:15. Somehow I assumed that [&hellip
Read entry →August 5, 2016 · 547 words
Epic Sail
Behold the Harald Hårfagr, or Harald Fairhair for you Anglophones. This is the “largest Viking ship built in modern times“— they are careful not to call it a “replica” because it’s not built to the plan of any historical vessel. It’s arrived in North America after an epic five-week transit of the Atlantic, follow
Read entry →August 2, 2016 · 175 words
Stand Back Ladies, it’s . . .
The beefcake shot! I had the camera and tripod set up for an entirely different reason, and then went about my business, and did my workout, and on my way to the showers caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Hmm, I thought. I’ll probably never be this young, this thin, or this pretty ever […]
Read entry →July 30, 2016 · 66 words
First Review
It’s Toot My Own Horn Time, because what else is a blog for? Publishers Weekly seems to be very, very fond of my upcoming Sula story. Which, to reiterate, is available for preorder at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo (ebook only), iBooks (ebook only). and Google (also ebook only). Speaking for myself, I can hardly wait, an
Read entry →July 29, 2016 · 444 words
Warp Wolf
Strange to think that I’ve known George R.R. Martin (seen here with Gwenda Bond) since 1979. I was a newly-minted historical novelist with my first contract, and he was transitioning from his first career, as a greatly admired award-winning Analog writer, to his second as a writer of horror fiction. After that came his
Read entry →July 26, 2016 · 115 words
In the Navy!
I had an unexplained bump in the sales of a seven-year-old book, and on checking I discovered that the U.S. Navy had bought 1555 copies of my novel This Is Not a Game. To which I had a number of responses. Whoa, this is awesome! What’s the heck is wrong with the other services? I’d kind of […]
Read entry →July 24, 2016 · 268 words
Beneath the Sign of the Bear
Here’s a souvenir of what I’ve been doing the last two weeks: teaching at Taos Toolbox, the master class for science fiction and fantasy, held this year in the isolated mountain fastness of Angel Fire, New Mexico. I taught plotting and contract language, among other things, and Nancy Kress did her usual brilliant thing
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