I’ve been working this past few months on short fiction. You wouldn’t think this would be such a hard thing to do, given my rate of production in the last ten years (almost fifteen novels, scores of book reviews, a few assorted nonfiction pieces, and all the blog entries, both here and on Dangerous Intersection), but short fiction is peculiar. Hell, anything is peculiar. If you’re used to writing one form, switching to another can be very difficult. There are some writers, I know (and some I know) who have no trouble moving between forms, but for whatever reason I do.…
Month: July 2010
Interview Complete
Over on Dangerous Intersection, all of my interview has been posted. It’s up in three separate posts, seven parts altogether. The links to each post are here:
http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/18/mark-tiedemann-speaks/
http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/19/mark-tiedemann-interview-parts-iv-and-v/
 http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/07/21/mark-tiedemann-wraps-up/
Watching them now leaves me with mixed feelings. This was almost a year-and-a-half ago. The entire thing was done in the most casual way. Erich had a few primer questions and then he just let me ramble. There are bits I’d say differently now, but in essence not much would I change. A couple of points are less clear than I’d like—the question about whether we are a “christian nation” is not answered as well as I would have preferred (Are we a christian nation? …
A Moment of Celebrity Type Stuff
A friend of mine, the estimable Erich Veith, came by my home a bit over a year ago and we recorded a long interview. Erich has finally gotten around to editing it and has begun posting segments on YouTube. Here’s the first one. (I still haven’t figured out how to embed videos here, so bear with me.)
Erich runs the website Dangerous Intersection, where I post opinionated blatherings from time to time and Erich graciously allows me to hold forth in my own idiosyncratic manner. Why he thought people would also enjoy watching and hearing me as well, I can’t say, but I enjoyed the process and from the looks of the first three (which are up at Dangerous Intersection) I don’t think I came off too badly.…
Radio Markets and Discontent
Personal gripe time. This is one of those instances where I believe The Market is a hydrocephalic moron and people who put their undying faith in get what they deserve.
Shortly after the 4th of July just past, a St. Louis radio station changed hands. KFUO 99.1 FM had, for sixty-plus years, been our commercial classical station. Before the first Gulf War, our local NPR affiliate, KWMU, was largely a classical music broadcaster, but after that first foray into Mid east adventurism they became pretty much All Talk All Day. Mind you, I like some of what they offer—Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Diane Rheem—but I am a lover of music. …
James Hogan, Troubled In His Stars
James P. Hogan had died.
He wrote science fiction. The books I read, over 20 years ago, were generally pretty good. He has the distinction for me of having written one of my favorite debut novels, Inherit the Stars. It was a murder mystery, a science mystery, a space adventure, and a thorough-going exposition on forensics of all sorts, including, in the end, “evolutionary” forensics (if such a thing exists).
There is profound irony in that. The plot hinges around a spacesuited corpse found on the moon at a time when it shouldn’t have been there. The story is the series of investigations finding out where it came from. …
Mel Gibson and Other Musings
So Mel Gibson has been exposed (once again) as an intolerant, sexist, abusive person. A recording of a phone conversation with his former girlfriend is now Out There on the internet and one can listen to Mel spill molten verbiage into her earpiece while she calmly refutes his charges.
All I can wonder is, So what?
What business is this of ours? This is private stuff. People lose control. Between each other, with strangers, but more often with those closest, people have moments when the mouth ill-advisedly opens and vileness falls out. The question is, does this define us? Are we, in fact, only to be defined by our worst moments?…
Context
Well, well, it seems I’ll be doing three conventions this year. I’d planned originally on one, but then I found out about MadCon 2010, in Madison, Wisconsin, which is ostensibly Harlan Ellison’s last convention. He claims. Not that I’m inclined to disbelieve him, but…
I’ve been asked to participate in programming at Context 23 in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve heard many good things about this convention and some friends have been pestering me to attend for a long time. I’ve been reluctant to do conventions that cost me anything out of pocket unless something really special is going on, because, well, I don’t have a book coming out or anything else to promote. …
Test Flight
Last night we did something in this house we’ve not done in years.
We broiled steaks.
Oh, yes, we like our new stove. We filled the manse with the aroma of good things to eat and lo, they were good to eat. Our taste buds did happy dances while we feasted. I assume our guests likewise experienced satori, possibly with each bite.
Steak, asparagus, rice, sour dough rye bread, salad…we did it up royally. Two excellent bottles of wine. (My mother, by the way, would be amazed that I’d eaten asparagus willingly. As a child I was most decidedly anti-vegetable. I’m still less interested in them than in meat, but since I’ve learned what some of them taste like when properly prepared…)
Yes, I am a carnivore. …