Monthly Archives: November 2009
Farewell November
Posted on November 30, 2009 15 Comments
Off into the sunset with you. We’ll see you again in about a year’s time. Stay out of trouble until then, all right? Groovy.
Monday Updatery
Posted on November 30, 2009 49 Comments
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 […]
Thus Commences the Thanksgiving Hiatus
Posted on November 25, 2009 40 Comments
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 […]
A Small Reminder to Authors Seeking Book Blurbs From Me
Posted on November 25, 2009 10 Comments
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.
A Morning Observation
Posted on November 25, 2009 25 Comments
Watching Looney Tunes with your kid at 10 am on a Wednesday makes you feel like you’re getting away with something.
A Recommendation You Probably Wouldn’t Expect From Me
Posted on November 24, 2009 113 Comments
I think most folks here know that I don’t drink alcohol and never have. However, I have friends who do, and one of them, my pal Deven Desai, is out here visiting my family for Thanksgiving. He’s partial to a good Scotch whisky, so when he arrived, I presented him with one that I had […]
The Big Idea: Jeff Carlson
Posted on November 24, 2009 8 Comments
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 […]
Sunset, 11/23/09
Posted on November 23, 2009 28 Comments
Unretouched out of the camera — but the flash on the camera had gone off, making the sunset somewhat more blood red than it might otherwise be. A reminder that what we see and what the camera sees are sometimes different things.
Quick Note on Self-Publishing
Posted on November 23, 2009 45 Comments
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 […]
Not Down a Well, This Time
Posted on November 22, 2009 15 Comments
Just away from the keyboard most of the day, on account of a visiting friend. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Compare and Contrast
Posted on November 21, 2009 79 Comments
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 […]
Writers’ Organizations to Harlequin: If You’re Not Going to Act Like a Real Publisher, We’re Not Going to Treat You Like One
Posted on November 20, 2009 290 Comments
Someone at Harlequin, the big publisher of romance novels, figured out there was money to be made from all the people who so desperately want to say that they’re being published by Harlequin that they’d be willing to pay for it. Thus has the company started its own vanity publishing arm: It’s called Harlequin Horizons, […]
Because Every Day Brings Joy
Posted on November 19, 2009 60 Comments
Busted sump pump in the basement! Oh, joy. Fortunately, the folks to fix this will be here in a couple of hours. Then once its fixed we get to see what stuff has water damage. I think I may kill zombies until then.
Bad Science Education In, Bad Science in Science Fiction Movies Out?
Posted on November 19, 2009
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 […]
Oh My God
Posted on November 18, 2009 66 Comments
It’s almost three o’clock and I haven’t updated yet today! I must have fallen down a well! WHY DIDN’T YOU COME RESCUE ME?!!?!!!??!?!??!?!???!
That Palin Book
Posted on November 17, 2009 127 Comments
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 […]
Early Thoughts on Left 4 Dead 2
Posted on November 17, 2009 65 Comments
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 […]
Will You Stay With Me, Will You Be My Love
Posted on November 16, 2009 17 Comments
I’m reminded from time to time that in fact this is quite a lovely song. [imeem music=”Ozptz_hqlt”]
A Query to the Assembly
Posted on November 16, 2009 96 Comments
Is it just me, or does it seem that pretty much everyone wants 2009 to be over with already?
Your Official “Hey It’s Now the Second Half of November” Pimp Thread
Posted on November 16, 2009 156 Comments
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 […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying