Monthly Archives: July 2006
When Ministers Say Goddamned Stupid Things
Posted on July 12, 2006 43 Comments
The Reverend Dr. Bill Lawson compared [Ken] Lay with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ, and said his name would eventually be cleared. “He was taken out of the world right at the right time,” he said. “History has a way of vindicating people who have been wronged.” — Ken Lay’s […]
Wednesday Author Interview: Alan DeNiro
Posted on July 12, 2006 2 Comments
Over at By The Way, I’m interviewing short story writer Alan DeNiro and chatting about his debut collection, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. I think it’s pretty groovy. Also, if you like you can check out a “fun size” version of the book; here’s the link (that’s a pdf download). Also, as […]
The Best SF Book Art Advice You’ll Probably Ever Get
Posted on July 11, 2006 12 Comments
First off, cool news: Irene Gallo, the magnificently awesome art director for Tor Books, has started a blog, appropriately called The Art Department. If you have a brain cell in your head, you’ll add it to your favorite links right this very second. Second off, Irene has done every aspiring SF book cover artist an […]
Insipid Thinking
Posted on July 11, 2006 2 Comments
In the mail today: A copy of Jonathan Letham’s new book, How We Got Insipid, from Subterranean Press; it’s a collection of two of Lethem’s short stories which have apparently been out of circulation for a while, even though one of them (“How We Got in Town and Out Again”) was nominated for a World […]
Two Points About Gitmo
Posted on July 11, 2006 37 Comments
Two things about today’s White House decision to, what the heck, give Gitmo detainees protections under the Geneva Conventions: 1. Real shame that it only took a Supreme Court ruling to get to this point. 2. The decision should give comfort to everyone convinced that Bush was going to go completely off the farm and […]
Speculative Literature Foundation’s Mentorship Program
Posted on July 11, 2006 5 Comments
So, I’m going to be part of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s mentorship program for this fall (it actually runs from August 1 to October 31). What this means is that I’ll be talking shop about writing and the publishing industry directly (via e-mail) with a small group of novice writers. I will be joined in […]
20 Epics
Posted on July 10, 2006 21 Comments
I’ve been meaning to write about Twenty Epics for a while now, but I wasn’t sure when it would be out. Well, now it’s out (it’s available on Lulu at the moment, and I understand will be out on Amazon and other books sites reasonably soon), so now I can talk to you about it. […]
Jiggity Jig
Posted on July 10, 2006 25 Comments
I’m back home, and catching up on some work with which I am now behind (curse you, United Airlines!). I’ll be back a little later. Until then amuse yourself. Here’s a topic to start you off: Italy: Great soccer team, or the greatest soccer team?
Readercon Wrapup
Posted on July 9, 2006 25 Comments
It’s entirely possible there is an industry that is run more incompetently than the airline industry, but if there is I don’t have to deal with it on a regular basis. At the moment I’m at in Dulles International Airport, waiting to if and when I might get on another flight. I suspect I’ll be […]
The Feminism of Old Man’s War
Posted on July 6, 2006 24 Comments
LiveJournaler Mosca has nice things to say about Old Man’s War, and also makes an argument for it being a feminist novel: This is one of the few military SF novels I’ve read that has women in it — not just love interests or characters established as female, but women who act like women. It […]
The Top 50 Personal Blogs in SF/F, v. 1.0
Posted on July 6, 2006 91 Comments
Because my daughter is home today, precluding me from doing any real writing on the book because she’s all daddydaddydaddydaddydaddydaddy, I thought I’d waste my time and last remaining dregs of youth on the pointless exercise of ranking the the top 50 personal blogs in SFdom, as determined from their rankings in Technorati. Because you […]
A Sample Chapter of The Ghost Brigades
Posted on July 5, 2006 14 Comments
This is another one of those “no one tells the author anything” moments: Apparently Holtzbrinck, the publishing multinational which owns Tor Books, has a blog thingie called Chapter Feeds, on which, as you might surmise from the name, are posted sample chapters from various books that are published within the warm and friendly confines of […]
Book Report
Posted on July 5, 2006 17 Comments
Crunch time writing on The Last Colony is going well, I think; I’ve been setting some lofty output goals for myself and have been keeping them, which makes me happier, and the majority of what I’m writing is not crap, which makes me happier still. As I noted earlier, TLC was slippy at the start; […]
Music to Slaughter Aliens By
Posted on July 4, 2006 4 Comments
John Joseph Adams calls my attention to a Finnish metal band called Ghost Brigade, which plays the sort of music just right for shredding your face right off. Here, try some. Maybe if The Ghost Brigades ever gets made into a movie, these guys can be on the soundtrack. And look: An album entitled The […]
The Prodigal Kitty
Posted on July 4, 2006 19 Comments
I don’t want to out myself as one of those crazy cat people. But Ghlaghghee disappeared the other night and spent close to two days away from the house, and when she came back this morning, I gave her a good talking to. Where have you been? I asked her. You think you can just […]
What I’ll Be Doing at Readercon
Posted on July 4, 2006 20 Comments
I’m doing well enough with my book writing that I’ll drop in here a day early from my self-imposed exile to give all y’all my Readercon schedule for this weekend. It’s a relatively light schedule, just three things, but they’re all fairly interesting: Friday, 7pm SF and Continuing Human Evolution Charles Oberndorf , Jeff Hecht, […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying