Monthly Archives: August 2013

Ten Years In Conventions

Today I head down to San Antonio and LoneStarCon 3, this year’s Worldcon. Coincidentally, this weekend also marks exactly the 10 year anniversary of me attending my very first science fiction convention: Torcon 3, up in Toronto. Before then, with the exception of a one-day  Creation Star Trek convention that I covered as a reporter […]

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Genuine & Counterfeit

William Beckett, who plays very excellent power pop, both with his previous band The Academy Is… (whose final album Fast Times at Barrington High I reviewed here) and now as a solo artist, tweeted the other day that he’d be making times available for in-house concerts. And I was all, wait, this is a thing […]

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Various Thoughts on Online Comments

Because I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot recently, but it’s not resolved itself into a coherent narrative. So to hell with the narrative, let me just toss out some thoughts I’ve been having on the subject, in no particular order. 1. Comments and comment threads have been problematic roughly as long as the […]

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The Big Idea: Benedict Jacka

William Faulkner wrote, “The past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past.” This is a concept that comes into play with Chosen, the latest Alex Verus novel by Benedict Jacka. He’s here now to explain how. BENEDICT JACKA: It was early 2012, and I was thinking over ideas for a fourth Alex Verus novel.  At the time […]

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To The Dudebro Who Thinks He’s Insulting Me by Calling Me a Feminist

Over the weekend, some dudebro with a history of shitting on women took this picture of me (which you may remember from here) and meme-ized it, with the intent, given his personal history and predilections, of mocking me — both for my views as regards women, and for wearing a dress. Well, this dudebro clearly […]

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Underwhelming Technology: Touchscreens

When I bought my most recent laptop and desktop, I went ahead and got a versions with touchscreens built in, because, hey, why not, it’s the wave of the future and in any event within a year it would be standard issue tech, etc. I wasn’t entirely sure if I would use them, but I […]

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About the News or Lack Thereof

It’s been noted to me I’ve been fairly quiet about the news and politics here recently. This is true, primarily because I’ve been devoting most of my brain cycles recently to the new novel, which is challenging in unexpected ways and requires some interesting problem-solving on my part (note to Patrick, my editor: This is […]

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Ooooh, a Scary Godmother Doll Kickstarter

My daughter was a huge fan of The Scary Godmother as she was growing up (and still is, in that teenage way), so when Scary Godmother creator Jill Thompson announced that she was kickstarting a fully articulated fashion doll of the character, I didn’t waste much time signing up so I could get one for […]

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