Monthly Archives: January 2009

Fiscally Sound

To the person who just sent me e-mail wondering how I might be affected by Pajamas Media closing their advertising network as of April 1: Wait, what? Not only am I not a member of the PM ad network, but a quick glance at the site reveals that there is in fact no paid advertising […]

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Stab Stab Stab: A Quiz

So, I’m cranky. Knowing me all as you do, do you suspect it’s because: a) I have low blood sugar at the moment; b) The world actually is a cesspool of petty hate and ultimate lameness, filled with people whose brains would be an embarrassment even to lower orders of mollusks. It’s one or the […]

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Metatropolis ARC; eBear Giveaway

Hey, look what I got: It’s the ARC for the printed version of the Metatropolis anthology, and I have to say it looks great: cool cover, great interior design, and rumor is, the stories inside are not so shabby, either. The people who get it (and it could be you!) are definitely going to pet […]

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Tools of Change Appearance

For those of you planning to go to or thinking of attending the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in New York City, February 9 – 11th, be aware that I’ll be there and I’ll be on a panel that is in fact pretty much about this very Web site: “Where Do You Go with 40,000 […]

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Here, Have a Pimp Thread

It’s been more than a month since I’ve done a pimp thread, and folks are sending me e-mails wondering when the next one will be because they have something they want to promote, and while I enjoy their piteous cries, my cruel nature doesn’t run that deep. So: Here you go folks. Tell us what […]

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I Wanna See This

This week’s AMC column is has a pretty simple topic: Five SF/F books I think would make good movies — if they got the right filmmakers (Children of Men, above, being an example of a good adaptation of a good SF novel). The list mixes classics and current hits, and of course you’re encouraged to […]

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Reasonably Unscrewed-Up Character ≠ Mary Sue

When Mary and I were doing the Q & A portion of our Borderlands Books appearance, I went off the ranch a bit and kvetched about one of my pet peeves concerning science fiction reviewers, which is the assumption that any main character who is not screwed-up is somehow automatically a Mary Sue wish fulfillment […]

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Why I So Infrequently Wear a Bowler Hat

Because I’m about 30 years too old to pull off the “adorable street urchin” look, that’s why. Photo by my friend Doselle, who I suspect the bowler hat would have looked much better on. Bowler hat via my pal Brian, who in fact it did look better on. It takes a special sort of man […]

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Here it Comes

Big storm on its way — well, the leading edge is already here, because snow is falling. We’re expecting between five and eleven inches of snow, which is, for those of you not up on these things, quite a bit for a single day (Canadian and Alaskans — yes, yes, we know. You laugh at […]

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The Big Idea: Carrie Vaughn

Werewolves and radio talk shows? Who’da thought they would be two great tastes that go great together? Carrie Vaughn, that’s who, and a good thing that she did. She’s taken that idea an parlayed it into the New York Times bestselling “Kitty Norville” series, in which a lycanthropic radio host has all sorts of wild […]

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Patience: Not Very 2009

Is it just me, or is what’s coming out of various political circles something like the following — “Obama: He’s been in office almost a week. So why isn’t everything better already?” — with the subtext being that if the man hasn’t solved everything in the first 100 hours, his administration is clearly a failure. […]

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21st Century Vroom

At the reading Mary Robinette Kowal and I did in San Francisco, one member of the audience was wearing a Tesla Motors T-Shirt, and in conversation he mentioned he wasn’t just wearing it as an affectation, he really did work at Tesla Motors. At which point I used my Jedi mind tricks to get him […]

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The Complete “John and Mary Show You Their Shorts”

John Nichols, who recorded my and Mary Robinette Kowal’s reading at Borderlands Books on January 16th, has thoughtfully chopped up the audio files of the performance into the individual stories and events, thus keeping me from having to do so myself, for which he wins my eternal gratitude. So for those of you who are […]

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