Monthly Archives: July 2014

Subscription Services and My Writing

People have asked me if I have any particular thoughts on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription plan, and whether my own work will be on it (and one presumes, on other similar subscription services, like Oyster and Scribd). So, some thoughts: While one should never say never, I don’t anticipate any of my novels being on […]

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This Thursday (and Elsewhen) in San Diego

Yes, I’ll be in San Diego this week, and all my events are on Thursday, the 24th. Here’s where you will find me: 1:30pm: Reading at the Grand Horton Theater, 444 4th Avenue (between Island and J streets). I’ll read a bit from Lock In, or I might decide to do something else. You never […]

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My 80s Dance Set List from Detcon 1

I’ve been getting requests for the set list of songs that went into the 80s dance I DJ’ed at Detcon 1. I had a source list — songs that I selected as the ones ready to queue up — of 346 songs, with everyone from Africa Bamabaata to Cher to Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy to […]

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Detcon, Briefly

I spent the weekend at Detcon 1, the North American Science Fiction Convention, held this year in Detroit, and had a pretty fabulous time. The convention was held at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, and it was the first time I’ve been downtown Detroit for a couple of decades. Those hoping for a report […]

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View From a Hotel Window, 7/18/14: View of Two Countries Edition

In the foreground of this picture is the United States; in the background, and unusually, south, is the great Nation of Canada. From these facts you may ascertain that I am very near the waterfront in Detroit. Also, when Steve Perry sings of someone being “born and raised in South Detroit,” he may be speaking […]

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Off to Detcon1

By the time you read this, I will either be at or be very near to Detcon1, this year’s NASFiC (an acronym which, if you already know what it means, suggests you are exactly the sort of geek who will be at the convention already). Once there, I will commence with four days of general […]

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The Big Idea: Sarah McCarry

On the road again — or perhaps, on the road for the first time? Sarah McCarry is a writer who perceived a certain lack within a particular narrative trope. Dirty Wings is her attempt to address it; here she is to tell you about it, and the book. SARAH McCARRY: When I was nineteen or twenty I […]

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On Book Reviews at Whatever

One of those “post once for future reference” posts. I’m getting a lot of requests for book reviews, many from indie/self-published authors who are, understandably, hoping to see their book talked about, but also from editors/publicists from established presses. So please allow me to note: I do not regularly, nor do I plan to in […]

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Another Life Milestone for Athena

My daughter now has her learning permit to drive, and I have co-signed to be the parent responsible for her learning how to drive (she will also need to take official driving classes). I am proud, and hope my car survives. (P.S.: Athena wishes you to know that she was squinting into the sun when […]

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The Big Idea: Sebastien de Castell

Author Sebastien de Castell dislikes knights — well, dislike may be too mild a word for it — and loves justice. Does that sound mildly contradictory to you? De Castell explains why it is not, and how his novel Traitor’s Blade aims for that justice through a new and unexpected class of hero. SEBASTIEN de […]

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An Interesting Quandary

I went over to Scribd and discovered that several titles of mine were on the site without my permission, which gave me an opportunity to try out Scribd’s DMCA reporting form and process. I’m happy to say that Scribd seems to be doing a fine job on that score: The elapsed time from report to […]

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My Detcon1 Schedule

I’ll be at the Detcon1 convention this upcoming weekend, Detcon1 being the North American Science Fiction Convention for the year (and the NASFiC being the convention that gets run in the US/Canada when the Worldcon is on a different continent). It’s in Detroit, downtown. It’s not too late to come along — it should be […]

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Lock In on the August 2014 LibraryReads List

This is a nice way to start the week: Every month, librarians pick the 10 books they are most looking forward to, out of all the books published that month, in the Library Reads List. And for August, Lock In is one of them. That’s really cool. Note that the Library Reads List is across all genres, […]

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The Lowest Difficulty Setting in Action

I noted a couple of years ago that Straight White Male is the lowest difficulty setting in the game called life (in particular the Western civilization variant of it). This annoyed many a straight white male, who didn’t see his life as being particularly “easy.” Noting that “lowest difficulty” is not the same as “easy” […]

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Quick Review

It’s very good. As others have noted, it’s probably the smartest franchise film of the summer, which could be textbook damning with faint praise, but isn’t. It’s also probably more accurately titled Dawn of the Planet Where Paranoid Assholes Really Have Done Their Level Best to Ruin Everything, which means, obviously, one could easily read lots […]

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Off to See the Apes

Which is to say Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. So you’ll have to entertain yourselves today. If you want something writing-related to read, Jamie Todd Rubin has written a piece on 3 of the Most Helpful Writers You’ll Ever Meet, and uses me as an an example of one of those types, which is […]

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