Monthly Archives: November 2009

Monday Updatery

Hey, I’m back. Catching up on things: * First, for everyone who complained this hiatus went on too long, your compensatory cat photo: That’s two cats for the price of one. What a bargain. * Second, Thanksgiving and the several largely work-free days around it were just lovely. Ate lots of food, watched a lot […]

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Thus Commences the Thanksgiving Hiatus

Unless something of such world-shaking importance occurs that I can’t not blog about it, lest I am required to turn in my blogger card, I’m out of here until sometime Monday. I may pop up in the comments, or update via Twitter/Facebook, but by and large I plan to be scarce until the 30th. In […]

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A Small Reminder to Authors Seeking Book Blurbs From Me

Please please please read my blurb guidelines here before you ask me for one, because as a general matter of policy, an author asking me directly for a book blurb results in me automatically turning that author down (yes, I explain why in the link). Get your editor/publisher/agent to ask instead. Thanks.

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The Big Idea: Jeff Carlson

Where do you go in a book series when you’ve wiped out five billion people in the first book? Jeff Carlson knows, because Plague Zone is the third book in his acclaimed “Plague Year” series — and yet, as Carlson explains in this week’s Big Idea, all the thought-out plans of the author can (and […]

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Quick Note on Self-Publishing

This is actually very simple, people. Leaving aside the actual discussion of the wisdom of self-publishing, generally speaking, if you are going to self-publish, for the love of all that is good and decent in this world, don’t pay to do it. In this day and age, there is no reason to do so. If […]

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Compare and Contrast

Store vs. National Brand: “Great Value,” for those who don’t know, is a Wal-Mart “generic” brand. Observations: 1. It does seem to me that the “crunchy fruit-based toroid” segment of the breakfast cereal industry has a problem with names. In the case of the national brand, the use of “Froot” rather than “fruit” telegraphs that […]

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Bad Science Education In, Bad Science in Science Fiction Movies Out?

In this week’s AMC column, I explain why better basic science education, while laudable and probably necessary in a larger sense, will almost certainly not improve the bad science one finds in most science fiction movies, like the most recent Star Trek flick (or indeed much of that series). I point out Star Trek primarily […]

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That Palin Book

I’ve been asked if I have any particular thoughts about Sarah Palin’s new book, and the short answer is no, not really; I haven’t read it, and I’m not going to be going out of my way to read it, either. It’ll get enough buyers, some of whom will even get through the thing. She’ll […]

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Early Thoughts on Left 4 Dead 2

Because, aside from a quick trip from the vet, this is what I’ve been doing with my morning: 1. It’s even more fun than the original, mostly because the up-close-and-personal melee weapons are just a (literally) bloody delight. I worked my way through one of the single player campaigns with a friggin’ samurai sword, and […]

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Your Official “Hey It’s Now the Second Half of November” Pimp Thread

Look! It’s Sebastian, the non-alliteratively-named turkey! And he’s here to host this here November pimp thread. What’s a pimp thread, you ask, because apparently you’ve never been to the site before? Well, it’s a thread I open up so you — yes, you! — can tell the roughly 40,000 folks who visit here every day […]

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