Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 163 entries, all of them here in full.
May 29, 2015 · 54 words
Not Paleo
Courtesy of Diana Rowland, the “potato po’boy,” a New Orleans treat with which I was previously unacquainted. A hoagie roll slathered with mayonnaise, filled with french fries, and then drowned in brown gravy. A very good thing, if this is the sort of thing you think is good. Of course, your pancreas can disagree.
Read entry →May 24, 2015 · 78 words
Sale on Sail!
My first published novel, To Glory Arise, originally titled The Privateer when it was first released, will be on sale for the next week for a mere $0.99. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords, iBooks, and (for those of you on the Indian subcontinent) Flipkart. The book is jolly good fu
Read entry →May 19, 2015 · 267 words
Clickable
So I have an ebook promotion coming up, and I’ve been uploading new versions of some of my ebooks to the various sites. The new versions have clickable links, which means that if you like the book, you can immediately click on another book by me and and download it. (And that is certainly an […]
Read entry →May 18, 2015 · 66 words
Texas Joik
When you’re joiking, you’re joiking alone. But not in this case. Joiking is normally an a cappella art form, but here Wimme brings a rhythm track with him, for a song as big as all Texas. I’m not sure where the picture comes from. It’s not the album cover, anyway. But what I’d like to […]
Read entry →May 15, 2015 · 75 words
1925-2015
“I just love singing my blues.” He lived 89 years, and he toured constantly till just a few months ago, and he could make a guitar weep. I saw him a number of times, and he was never less than a standout, even when he was opening for someone else. Sirius Radio’s blues channel is […]
Read entry →May 14, 2015 · 487 words
The Broken Road
I’ve just finished The Broken Road, the long-delayed third volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s memoir of the walk across Europe that the 18-year-0ld Fermor took in 1933, just after Hitler took power in Germany. I have mentioned the earlier volumes, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water elsewhere, and added a
Read entry →May 10, 2015 · 143 words
Days and Days
It’s Mother’s Day here in the States, so I thought I’d post a photo of my mom, on the right, enjoying a typical evening with her pal Sylvia Aakre. It occurs to me that my idea of a fun time just might be hereditary. Mom met Sylvia at university, where they were both studying to […]
Read entry →May 8, 2015 · 1,310 words
Superhero O.D.
I saw Age of Ultron, and I’ve reached Episode Seven of Daredevil, and so I’m pretty well experiencing a superhero O.D. right now. What I’ve learned from both is a lesson in the limitations of the superhero genre, even if you gussie it up with A-list actors and a $250-million budget. I’m enjoying Daredevil, and Charlie
Read entry →May 6, 2015 · 291 words
Edible!
My longtime friend Nadine Panache is a badass baker. For my birthday one year she created a cake of a sculpted Dracula lying in his sculpted coffin. (I was born around Halloween) For another friend, born on the anniversary of the Titanic sinking, she built a sinking Titanic going down by the bows, with little […
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