Monthly Archives: September 2004
How I Know Autumn Has Begun:
Posted on September 30, 2004 13 Comments
Today is the day I flicked the thermostat from “Cool” to “Heat.” Stupid autumn.
Stupid, Ignorant or Hypocritical Update
Posted on September 29, 2004 9 Comments
Documentary evidence for my point of view: As the nation prepares to watch the presidential candidates debate foreign policy issues, a new PIPA-Knowledge Networks poll finds that Americans who plan to vote for President Bush have many incorrect assumptions about his foreign policy positions. Kerry supporters, on the other hand, are largely accurate in their […]
Today’s Fountain of Ridiculous Crap From Antonin Scalia
Posted on September 29, 2004 28 Comments
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he believes “abstract moralizing” has led the American judicial system into a quagmire, and that matters such as abortion and assisted suicide are “too fundamental” to be resolved by judges. “What I am questioning is the propriety, indeed the sanity, of having value-laden decisions such […]
I Love the Smell of New Books in the Morning
Posted on September 28, 2004 22 Comments
Since the Science Fiction Book Club will be promoting my book in January, I figured it would be only fair to actually join the club, so a couple of weeks ago I did just that, and as a result got a small pile of books with the club’s “5 books for $1” introduction thing, plus […]
Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Blogging I Learned From the New York Times
Posted on September 27, 2004 17 Comments
The New York Times Magazine’s cover story this week is on political bloggers (it features Wonkette’s Ana Marie Cox looking Jodie Foster creamy and dreamy in front of a keyboard while R.W. Apple and and Jack Germond look clueless and old behind her), and now having read it, I have a few comments: 1. While […]
Cubism is Alive and Well and Wants a Juice Box
Posted on September 26, 2004 12 Comments
“Look, it’s a train,” Athena explains, and damned if it isn’t. The question is whether it’s a train because she intended it to be a train, of if it’s a train because she was just doodling and that’s the closest actual object to what she’s doodled. I’d ask her, but that seems like an imposition […]
A Bracing Moment of Market Reality: The Class of January 2005
Posted on September 25, 2004 18 Comments
For anyone out there who believes that once you’ve sold a book, you’ve got it made, may I present to you the following list of the science fiction and fantasy books that are being released in January 2005 (i.e., the same month as Old Man’s War) in the US, UK and Canada. I get to […]
Selling Agent
Posted on September 25, 2004 6 Comments
I’ve been asked this question a couple of times in the last few days, once from a reader, and once from an interviewer: Now that I’ve sold other novels, am I going to try to sell Agent to the Stars? For those of you coming very late to this party, Agent is the very first […]
PayPal Gets Inexplicably Snippy
Posted on September 24, 2004 11 Comments
Bill Quick sends notice that he’s apparently run afoul of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy. The company writes: Your account has been limited for violating PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy regarding Offensive Material. The Policy prohibits the use of PayPal in the sale of items or in support of organizations that promote hate, violence, or racial intolerance; […]
Busy, Busy — An Excuse for an Open Thread
Posted on September 23, 2004 23 Comments
Athena spent half the night hacking like a smoker, so I’ve decided to keep her home today. Add her happy but intensely distracting presence to an already full slate of work which includes my first interview for Old Man’s War (yay!), and what you get is a day where I don’t have much time to […]
A Terrifying Thought
Posted on September 22, 2004 25 Comments
As I was dropping off Athena at her school, which due to the small-town nature of where I live, houses all the schoolkids in the town from Kindergarten through high school, it occurred to me that the kids who are graduating this year, class of ’05, were mostly born the same year I graduated from […]
Hello, Thunderbird
Posted on September 22, 2004 5 Comments
My migration toward all things Mozilla continues apace; I’ve just dumped AOL Communicator for my e-mail client in favor of Thunderbird 0.8, the e-mail (and RSS and news)reader from Mozilla. The reason for this is simple: AOL Communicator made a ridiculous imposition on my ability to send mail. Specifically, it refused to send mail from […]
Holly Lisle’s Egregious Breach of Online Etiquette
Posted on September 20, 2004 56 Comments
Author Holly Lisle takes exception to my recent declaration that people who want to vote to Bush are either stupid, ignorant or hypocritical, and makes a few of the ad hominem swipes at me she accuses me of making at Bush. My favorite ad hominem at the moment: “But the writer of the post cited […]
The Mosh Pit Eats Its Own
Posted on September 20, 2004 9 Comments
Sure, the mosh pit at a Puddle of Mudd concert looks cute and harmless from a distance. But you get inside, and, well, it’s bruise city. Fair warning. Krissy says: “You should see the other guy.” What’s left of him, anyway.
Happiness is a Warm Advance
Posted on September 20, 2004 3 Comments
Apropos to the recent entries about book advances — and just in time for October’s onslaught of bills — comes the most recent installment of my advance for Book of the Dumb 2. How do I feel about it? Not bad. I felt that way when the first installment came in, and I’ll feel the […]
Prejudices
Posted on September 20, 2004 24 Comments
One of the side effects of writing a book about science fiction film is that I have to revisit (and in some cases, visit for the first time) a lot of pre-Star Wars science fiction film, and I’ve discovered that by and large I have a prejudice against these flicks. The reason is simple: Pre-Star […]
Publisher’s Lunch People
Posted on September 17, 2004 1 Comment
If you’re coming over from Publisher’s Lunch to find the “Real World Book Deal” entry, it’s here. And there’s a followup here. And of course, I invite you to poke around otherwise.
Roger Ebert
Posted on September 17, 2004 17 Comments
Not that it needs my help to promote it, but Roger Ebert’s new site is up, and it’s awesome, since it features Ebert’s film reviews going back to 1967, as well as his various other writings on film. I’ve personally been using Ebert’s previous site for research and enjoyment for a while now — I […]
Reminder: My Whatever
Posted on September 16, 2004 33 Comments
A Bush supporter, taken somewhat aback at my estimation of his being either stupid, ignorant or hypocritical, has this to say in the comment thread in the previous post: “Are you still going to be like this next year after Bush wins? Do you really expect me to come back? Do you really expect me […]
Bush Voters v. Voight-Kampff
Posted on September 15, 2004 152 Comments
Dubya’s up in the electoral vote count, which means the GOP Alternate Reality Field is in particularly fine shape this week; those all-too-dubious Dubya National Guard letters didn’t help matters either. This is Kerry’s big problem at the moment: When people go after him (i.e., Swift Boat), he takes the hit. When people go after […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying