Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 162 entries, all of them here in full.
May 30, 2017 · 184 words
Ginger Marmalade
Last week’s Rio Hondo featured Maureen McHugh’s Anova sous vide precision cooker and some short ribs that had been cooked for 24 hours in a water bath until unbelievably tender. I watch enough cooking shows to have seen TV hosts swooning over sous vide cooking, but for quite a few years a setup cost thousands […
Read entry →May 26, 2017 · 54 words
Anvilstruck
I’m continuing my prep for the worldcon by investigating Finnish culture, and I discovered this video by Steve’n’Seagulls, with their own interpretation of a modern classic. Gotta love the anvil. The accordion player with a dead animal on his head. And the fact that, for the first time, I can actually understand the wo
Read entry →May 26, 2017 · 54 words
Shandification
So what does the classic but gonzo 18th Century novel Tristram Shandy have to do with video and console games? Quite a lot, according to this video, which also offers some fairly astute ideas about narrative and structure. Plus a newly-coined term with which the more pretentious among us can annoy our friends. Win/win!
Read entry →May 25, 2017 · 381 words
Long Live the New Zealand Space Corps!
Today we breathlessly awaited the launch of New Zealand’s first rocket, which finally happened after bad weather forced several delays. Check the video to see the Electron two-stage vehicle leaping into orbit on its fiery kerosene/LOX tail. (I advise going to full screen.) The Electron is a small, low-cost vehicle, des
Read entry →May 24, 2017 · 304 words
Whereat I Have Been
So I’ve been very, very busy. First, last week was the Rio Hondo workshop, hosted by Michaela Roessner and myself. This was the 20th Anniversary Rio Hondo, which oddly enough did not make me feel old, but young, young, young! It was the most trouble-free workshop experience I can remember, and everyone pitched in and [
Read entry →May 12, 2017 · 107 words
I Am Cover’d
Behold! The Gregory Manchess cover for Quillifer, my next book, complete with blurb from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz! How cool is that! The protagonist’s expression turned out to be key for this, and according to my editor went through several versions. “It was a goldilocks scenario of just too old, too wa
Read entry →May 10, 2017 · 146 words
For the Folks Abroad
This is an announcement for my readers outside of North America. The Praxis, the first in my Dread Empire sequence, is on sale for 99 cents, or 99 cent-equivalents in whatever your currency happens to be. You can find the book at Amazon.co.uk, iBooks, Kobo, and Google. This is the revised and slightly expanded Praxis,
Read entry →May 4, 2017 · 142 words
Spas of the Jedi
Ever since the trailer for Star Wars: the Last Jedi was released, there has been a mighty buzz over Luke’s proclamation that “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” Charlie Jane Anders, on wired.com, suggests that what the Jedi need is not extinction, but Workers’ Comp. This is clearly a job with a high attrition rate. [&hell
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