Monthly Archives: September 2009
The Things You Learn About Yourself Playing Star Wars Video Games
Posted on September 21, 2009 52 Comments
There was a special on Star Wars-related FPS games on Steam over the weekend, so I bought a bunch of old games for $20 and then spent a large portion of the weekend playing Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. And while it’s all sorts of fun cutting up storm troopers and Sith acolytes with […]
My Life Is Good But I’m Worried Yours is Better
Posted on September 21, 2009 94 Comments
Cartoonist Tim Kreider writes over at the New York Times about something he calls “the Referendum,” in which people in their early middle age (think 40 to 45) look at the lives of all their friends and try to figure out how their own lives match up to theirs. This is basically indistinguishable to what […]
Big Damn Ads
Posted on September 20, 2009 43 Comments
My friend Doselle Young sent along this picture of a big-ass Stargate: Universe ad on the side of an LA hotel, and over the last couple of days I’ve seen double-sided ads for SG:U in both Rolling Stone and Wired. And I’m thinking, damn, I wish every project I worked on was this well advertised. […]
My First Interview as a Science Fiction Author
Posted on September 20, 2009 11 Comments
It was at Torcon 3, in 2003, which was after Tor bought Old Man’s War but was a year and a half before the novel actually came out, and which was my very first science fiction convention, ever. The interview was with CBC radio dude Joe Mahoney, who met me at the Tor Books Worldcon […]
A General Observation
Posted on September 20, 2009 50 Comments
The Internet does seem to be full of people whose knowledge of complex concepts appears limited to a dictionary definition. Some of them seem to be proud of that.
Not Dead or Abducted or Transformed Into a Newt
Posted on September 19, 2009 18 Comments
Just having a non-computer-centric Saturday. Hey, it’s allowed, from time to time.
View Out the Window, 9/18/09
Posted on September 18, 2009 32 Comments
Both animals apparently deep in thought. Not having deep thoughts, mind you. Just deeply into having them.
Get Yer Muse On
Posted on September 18, 2009 66 Comments
Still writing. Sorry. But look! Here’s Muse! I like this song. Video’s a bit creepy. My understanding is that Glenn Beck has glommed onto this song as a metaphor for the struggle he’s leading against Obama. I think that’s adorable.
You Look Like You Could Use Some Psychedelic Furs
Posted on September 18, 2009 26 Comments
So, here you go: As for me, I’m off writing pay copy. Yes, I do that sometimes.
Today’s Paradoxical Thought That Really Isn’t
Posted on September 17, 2009 107 Comments
As I get older, I worry less about “life being fair” and worry rather more about justice. Tell me that makes sense to anyone else but me.
The Big Idea: David Anthony Durham
Posted on September 17, 2009 25 Comments
David Anthony Durham is one of my favorite new fantasy writers, and I’m not alone in having this opinion; Durham this year found himself in possession of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, taking the tiara from an exceptionally competitive field. Durham nabbed that award on the strength of his acclaimed debut fantasy novel […]
Favors Followup
Posted on September 17, 2009 73 Comments
A couple of thoughts in follow-up to the “Asking Favors of Established Writers” piece: * Some people are concluding based on the piece that I think a) one should never ask favors of writers and b) writers should never say yes to favors when asked for them. In fact, neither is true. Writers get asked […]
Beyond Awards
Posted on September 17, 2009 48 Comments
By now the whole Kayne West/Taylor Swift moment at the MTV Video Music Awards has reached its equilibrium, so there’s nothing really much to say about that hasn’t been said by everyone else, up to and including the president. But I would like to point out something that’s been overlooked in this whole silly thing, […]
Extended For Your Pleasure
Posted on September 17, 2009
Over at AMC, I’m asking reader opinion on which version of a film is the “definitive” version: The original version of the film that came out in the theaters, or the extended/director’s/special editions that come out later. I ask because sometimes it’s hard for me to choose (although not in the case of whether Han […]
I Am A Bastard Who Never Helps Others, Or, A Very Special Pimping Thread
Posted on September 16, 2009 228 Comments
In the aftermath of yesterday’s entry, it has been ascertained that in point of fact I am a heartless bastard of a writer, who once he achieved super-ultra-mega-LASER-stardom not only pulled the ladder up from behind him, but then dismantled the ladder and threw the now useless chunks of the ladder at the heads of […]
On The Asking of Favors From Established Writers
Posted on September 15, 2009 348 Comments
It looks like it’s time to do a little more head-knocking regarding the life of a writer, so let’s just start knocking heads, shall we. Dear currently unpublished/newbie writers who spend their time bitching about how published/established writers are mean because they won’t read your work/introduce you to their agent/give your manuscript to their editor/get […]
The Big Idea: Megan Crewe
Posted on September 15, 2009 16 Comments
Ghosts: Let’s face it, most people who see them (in novels and such), aren’t generally happy about the fact. I’ve always thought: Why? Dude, you’re seeing into a secret world of the dead. That’s kind of cool. But no, they’re usually angsty about it. Seems a bit of a waste to me. And, critically, to […]
“The God Engines” Review in Publishers Weekly
Posted on September 14, 2009 38 Comments
The first review of my dark fantasy novella The God Engines is in from Publishers Weekly, and it is an excellent review. I won’t post the whole thing here, because it’s a bit spoilery of things I want unspoiled, but here’s the pull quote: If J.G. Ballard and H.P. Lovecraft had ever collaborated… the results […]
They Should Have Called It “Darwin: The Revengination”
Posted on September 13, 2009 143 Comments
A producer of Creation, the film about Charles Darwin and his wife Emma, starring Paul Bettany and his real-life wife Jennifer Connelly, is griping that the film has no distributor in the US, apparently because so many Americans are evolution-hating mouth-breathers that no one wants the touch the thing; it’s just too darn controversial. Well, […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying