Monthly Archives: February 2009
Home Is Where I Want to Be
Posted on February 22, 2009 12 Comments
But I guess I’m already there. I mean, I’m typing this in my office and all. Which is to say my travel karma did not kick my ass this time. Go me. The good news is that now I don’t have to go anywhere for a month (at which point I go here). There’s a […]
That Was Fun
Posted on February 21, 2009 23 Comments
The reason I was in DC this weekend was that I was officiating the wedding of my friends Emily Weise and Michael King (now each taking the name of Weise-King), and I have to say it was a whole lot of fun, from the robot cake toppers to the part where a significant portion of […]
Hugo Reminders
Posted on February 21, 2009 14 Comments
Hey there, folks — I’ve been asked to remind all you potential Hugo nominators (that would be those people who attended last year’s Worldcon, Denvention 3, and/or have registered for this year’s Worldcon, Anticipation) that there’s just a week to get your nomination ballots in, and that if you’re submitting your nominations online, sooner is […]
Something to Look Forward To
Posted on February 20, 2009 12 Comments
Because I know you’re always looking for reasons not to throw yourself off a bridge, consider this as something to get you through the weekend: Next week, I’ll be posting not one, not two, but three Big Idea pieces. Yes! Three times the joy! At least which one of which I intended to post this […]
In DC
Posted on February 20, 2009 35 Comments
First, the popular and obligatory picture from the hotel window: I can see the Washington Monument from my window, but right now the sun’s glare is keeping me from getting a good shot of it, so you’re all out of luck in terms of symbolic phallic symbols. Try to make it through the day anyway. […]
Oy
Posted on February 19, 2009 10 Comments
Finally in my hotel room, roughly eight hours after I was supposed to be here. Travel sucks. But it’s nice to be back in DC. Now I’m going to bed. See you all tomorrow.
My Astonishingly Bad Travel Karma Continues Unabated
Posted on February 19, 2009 59 Comments
I get to the airport and discover a) the airline self-serve kiosks are down, and b) my flight is cancelled. The first of these caused me to stand in line for an interminable period of time just to hear I had no flight; the second of these caused me to whip out the cell phone […]
More Travel
Posted on February 19, 2009 29 Comments
Lopsided Cat thinks he will bar me from leaving the house by cleverly sitting on my carry-on! Foolish cat! As large as you are, I still have impressive lifting power! Which I will soon use to remove you from said carry-on. These are the trials of being a somewhat small mammal, in the grand scheme […]
Long Odds to Cinematic Glory
Posted on February 19, 2009
What are the chances that your favorite work of literary science fiction will make it to the silver screen? As I explain in today’s AMC column: Pretty darn slim. Sorry. I’m bummed about it too. Take a look at the column and leave your thoughts and comments over on the AMC site.
Korean OMW Covers
Posted on February 18, 2009 32 Comments
Dude, I totally love this artwork. The first picture is the front cover, the second the back cover (NB: the edge of the front cover is clipped on the right because I’m a bad photographer). Seriously, this is one of the reasons I love foreign versions of my work (I mean, aside from the money) […]
Repeating Myself For the Benefit of the Home Crowd
Posted on February 18, 2009 149 Comments
Over at Metafilter, they’re talking about media tie-in science fiction, bouncing off Vonda McIntyre’s blog post on the subject of writing Star Trek novels. The comments are fairly balanced between snarking on the people who read and write tie-ins and the people who are saying “hey now, it’s not bad stuff,” and so I thought […]
Free and Largely Scientifically Accurate Science Fiction
Posted on February 18, 2009 12 Comments
Via the always-fantabulous Mary Robinette Kowal, I bring to your attention Diamonds in the Sky, a free-to-read, online anthology of (mostly) new science fiction, edited by Mike Brotherton. Brotherton, who is an astronomer as well as a science fiction writer, wanted to highlight stories that got the “science” part of science fiction right, and pitched […]
Speaking of Introductions
Posted on February 17, 2009 46 Comments
I’m making something of a side gig doing introductions to new editions of classic works of science fiction, because I’ve signed on to write an introduction for The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition, a massively expanded new edition of the Ray Bradbury magnum opus from Subterranean Press and PS Publishing. In addition to the original […]
The Forever War Out, Again
Posted on February 17, 2009 27 Comments
A quick reminder to folks: The newest edition of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War hits the shelves today, and if the text of this classic science fiction tale wasn’t enough to entice you on its own (which it should be, damn it), I’ll remind you that this edition also comes with an introduction by me, […]
Vincent Chong Art
Posted on February 17, 2009 9 Comments
Vincent Chong is the fellow who has done the artwork for the Subterranean Press limited editions of Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades, and as anyone who’s seen the work in those books can tell you, he’s really good at what he does (the above illustration is from OMW). This is why I’ve happily […]
Justine Just Says “No”
Posted on February 16, 2009 15 Comments
“No” to requests for her to read other people’s unpublished work, that is. Lots of reasons, many of which boil down to “uh, can’t you see I’m busy?” Which is a totally valid reason. Reminds me to link again to my own entry on the subject, since I’m getting an increasing incidence of such requests […]
Le Chat au bacon
Posted on February 16, 2009 34 Comments
Meanwhile, in France, the newspaper Le Figaro (or one of its blogs, in any event) has discovered Bacon Cat, as our Gallic companions try to make sense of the online bacon obsession.
Oh Noes! He’s Talking Politics Again!
Posted on February 16, 2009 184 Comments
The creative centers of my brain are flipping me the bird at the moment, so I’ll fill up this empty time by spouting off about politics for a spell. You folks in the front rows, ready your tarps; it’s gonna get messy. * I’m not entirely sure where the GOP is buying its drugs these […]
You’ve Got Layoffs!
Posted on February 16, 2009 18 Comments
My former AOL colleague Joe Loong has up something called “Preparing for Your Impending Layoff From AOL,” which as you might guess is about what to do when you’re laid off from that august institution, as I was in 1998, and Joe himself was in 2007. It’s got some AOL-specific stuff in there, but there’s […]
Comment Overflow for “10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing”
Posted on February 15, 2009 505 Comments
The comment thread for “10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing” is now well over 600 comments, and that page itself is taking a fair amount of time to load. So I’m closing the comments there to keep the page from growing any larger and opening up a supplementary comment thread here, where teens […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying