Monthly Archives: October 2023
The Big Idea: Daniel Hope
Posted on October 4, 2023 9 Comments
If you spend your whole life thinking about death, are you even really living? Author Daniel Hope brings us some excellent existential questions like this in the Big Idea for his newest novel, The Inevitable. Follow along as he guides you through a robot’s, and in a sense a human’s, attempt to survive in a […]
The Unlamented Former Speaker
Posted on October 4, 2023 76 Comments
It’s not exactly a surprise that Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House, probably most of all to McCarthy himself. As a condition of his ascendance into that position, which took fifteen rounds of rather embarrassing haggling, he had to agree that a motion to vacate the position (i.e., his ability to get […]
I Read A Book This Year
Posted on October 3, 2023 121 Comments
I read one book in 2020, one book in 2021, one book in 2022, and so far in 2023, I have read one book. This makes me kind of sad. I’ve talked about it on here before, but I used to love reading when I was younger, and ever since I became an adult, I […]
The Big Idea: Alden E. Stoner
Posted on October 3, 2023 4 Comments
Everyone has a story to tell. Thanks to the organization Nature Sacred, people have a chance to write their tales in discoverable journals at Sacred Places all over the country. Alden E. Stoner, CEO of Nature Sacred and contributor to Benchtalk: Wisdoms Inspired in Nature, is here today to tell us a bit about how […]
Ági Szabados Does Not Need To Apologize To Me
Posted on October 2, 2023 40 Comments
So, at the opening ceremonies of the Budapest International Book Festival this year, a couple of people gave prefatory remarks before I received the Budapest Grand Prize and participated in my own relatively brief question and answer period. One of them was actor Ervin Nagy; the other was Ági Szabados, who is a newscaster and […]
On Blurb Hiatus Through the Rest of 2023
Posted on October 2, 2023 13 Comments
This is one of those little housekeeping notes I post to point people at later: I am not accepting any additional requests for novel blurbs (or blurbs for other projects) through the end of 2023. I have a backlog of books I have been asked to blurb, and between now and the end of 2023 […]
Back Home! For Now!
Posted on October 2, 2023 12 Comments
After two weeks on the road, I have returned home and slept in my own bed and petted my own pets, and this makes me very happy. I am not done traveling — this month I have Bexley (a Columbus suburb), Wichita, New York, Detroit, Nashville and Madison to go to — but each of […]
Heading Home
Posted on October 1, 2023 20 Comments
I’m on my way home to the US, but it was a near thing; my flight out of Budapest left late and I had to run across most of Munich’s airport to catch my connection and barely made it before they closed the doors. If I had to run a minute longer than I did […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying