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.
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
Read entry →July 19, 2016 · 231 words
Released
The Turkish government is now using last week’s coup as a bridgehead toward complete control of the country’s education system. 1500 university deans have been ordered to resign, and the licenses of 21,000 teachers have been revoked. These teachers mostly worked at private institutions, many of which had been founded b
Read entry →July 18, 2016 · 1,154 words
Worst. Possible. Result.
So a couple days ago there was a military coup in Turkey. And that coup has failed. Which is the worst possible result. Much worse than if the coup hadn’t happened, worse than if the coup had succeeded. Prior to the election of Erdogan and his AK Party in 2003, Turkey was under the thumb […]
Read entry →July 15, 2016 · 150 words
Straight Face
I’m up on a mountain along with Nancy Kress, helping fourteen very talented new writers hone their craft, and so I’ve been very busy. But I’m not totally out of touch, and I was as surprised and baffled as anyone when Britain’s new PM appointed Boris Johnson* as foreign minister. If you want to start […]
Read entry →July 12, 2016 · 87 words
Lord Nelson in Spaaaaaace!
Today is the release day for my friend David D. Levine’s first novel, Arabella of Mars. The story features the Napoleonic Wars fought between planets by a sailing navy, and showcases a young heroine described as “a Patrick O’Brian girl fighting a Jane Austen world.” David talks more about the book and its concepts over
Read entry →July 8, 2016 · 59 words
Crescent Moon Kingdom
I’ve finished the novel. (Yay!) But all that means is that I have to finish reading and critiquing 140,000 words of fiction for the Taos Toolbox workshop, which starts on Sunday. (Yay?) So I am still buried in work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this photo of the crescent moon at sunset, taken […]
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