Category Archives: Uncategorized

Farhad Manjoo has a pretty good column up at Slate.com on the advantages and disadvantages of Ubuntu, probably the most user-friendly flavor of the Open Source operating system Linux. My little Eee PC has Ubuntu installed on it; this was … Continue reading →

1. I’m completely against the anathematizing of specific words or word-types. Except. You know. Sometimes. Does anyone except a geologist ever really need to say “epicenter”? And “virtually”: there’s virtually never a reason to use it. Those are old complaints. … Continue reading →

The SF Signal guys have a new Mind Meld feature up, asking a bunch of writers, “Which Authors and Books Have Most Influenced Your Writing?”… and for some reason they asked me. Odd to see my byline in there with … Continue reading →

Over the past week I was doing line-edits of Blood of Ambrose and a new(ish) Morlock story for Black Gate and I was forcibly reminded that I cannot read my own work attentively. I don’t mean that I find it … Continue reading →

Maybe some oblique political comment here, but the main thing is that all the Palindroning about the Weathermen lately has been reminding me of the old video-from-before-they-were-videos of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”… and, in turn, of the Weird Al parody, “Bob” … Continue reading →

To celebrate her second collection of stories, Kelly Link is giving away (most) of her first collection, Magic for Beginners, as a digital download. I will not lie to you: most fiction that could be classed as interstitial makes me … Continue reading →

In the course of eviscerating one of Robert Sheckley’s early stories, James Blish penned (or typed, more probably) the immortal line “they look like rabbits, but if you call them smeerps that makes it science fiction.” This made its way … Continue reading →

1. A Meme Stop me if you’ve heard this one: * Grab the nearest book. * Open the book to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your … Continue reading →

1. Sorry I’ve been so silent here lately. Part of that has been due to technology: my beloved but ailing eMac finally became unusable, so I took part of my advance for Blood of Ambrose and bought a new iMac; … Continue reading →

Beneath the bloody sky, upon his mountain throne, the Stalker waits for wolf-days and his hands-of-fire bide their time.