Twenty-five years ago I arrived on the campus of Michigan State University to begin the six weeks of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop. Donna had driven me up, along with a friend (because I didn’t want her driving back alone—which led to a small bit of confusion because while Donna was catching a nap in my dorm room, everyone else met Drea and then when Donna picked me up, there was some, as I say, confusion…) and then left me there for six weeks of the best pressure cooker experience I’d ever had. I’ve written about it here and here.…
Category: blog
On The Extraction of Feet From Mouths
I’ve been thinking deeply about the recent eruption of controversy in SFWA over sexism. Seems just about anywhere we look in the last several years there are examples of men behaving stupidly toward and about women. While this is nothing new, where it has been cropping up seems surprising.
There have been several incidents, both online and out in the world, within the skeptical community. The boys came out to try to tell the girls to get their own clubhouse and stop invading what for some reason these males had regarded as somehow the province of people with testicles. Prominent women—skeptics, humanists, atheists, scientists—have been treated to high school-level chauvinism by males intent on…
On what?…
Jack Vance: 1916 – 2013
Jack Vance has died. Â Not one of my favorite authors, he nevertheless exerted tremendous influence, even on me, and is more than worthy of our remembrance. Â I have written an appreciation over at the Proximal Eye, here.…
Two More Tomorrow
Two more shots of The Men of Tomorrow, courtesy Jarek Steele of Left Bank Books.
Might use this last one for some kind of avatar somewhere.
…
The Men of Tomorrow
So, the other night, the 22nd to be exact, I committed Public Performance. I had help. Two brave musicians, both of whom are better at their respective instruments than I am at mine, joined me to play jazz-like music at the Mad Art Gallery where Left Bank Books and other St. Louis Independent bookstores celebrated World Book Night. I mentioned this in a previous post.
The main event of the evening was an on-stage interview conducted by author Curtis Sittenfeld of author J.R. Moehringer.
Here we see Left Bank’s Shane Mullen introducing them:
The interview was great. Lively, informative, and Moehringer is very entertaining. …
Afterimage
I finished the first draft of the new (old) novel, a rewrite of a rather pathetic bit of crime fiction that I just could not give up on. The chapters are being reviewed as I write this. I’m taking some time off. I put in some long days on this and it still isn’t ready for prime time.
Meantime, something somewhat disturbing to keep the reader wondering, “Just where did he go that weekend and who—or what—was he with?”
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure myself. I woke up in my own bed, but the room looked too normal. …
New Mars
Yeah, I was goofing off this morning, trying to find a way into a rewrite, and needing to distract myself from overthinking it. So I redid my header (see above). It’s the same NASA image I had up before…only different. I did some Photoshopping and added color and such.
The framing tool for WordPress, though, forces some heavy crops, so here is the full image as reworked:
As cool as the original was, it was also kinda monochromatic. So I played around, did something more…Barsoom-ish. Anyway, having once known how to add color to an image and then forgot the method, I have now rediscovered it and will use it a bit more often.…
New Me
I haven’t done any serious new shots of myself for a while. A few opportunistic snapshots here and there, but nothing suitable for framing, so to speak. Comic Con is coming up and I’ll be there and I was asked for a photo, so this morning Donna (patiently) indulged me and we did some new ones. This one isn’t going out for a head shot, but I rather like it:
She wanted one with the orchids and I don’t usually do profiles, so…
I had something in mind more like this, though, since I’ve been feeling a bit more physically…well, the way I’d like to feel…
Sort of a catalogue feel, if you know what I mean. …
New Black & White
I’m still perusing my new Edward Weston and Ansel Adams books. Sigh. I lurves me good black & white. Not that this image is particularly good, but it’s my most recent.
I’m working on a new novel. Well, not new new, but new enough. And reading. And right now watching pesky snow fall and wishing I didn’t have to go into work this afternoon.
So this is another marker till I have something meatier to post. Enjoy and stay warm.…
Portrait of a Good Friend
I haven’t done a new picture of Coffey in a bit. She graciously agreed to sit for this portrait, responding with uncanny sensitivity to my vague suggestions for pose and poise, finally opting to just be herself, waiting for something more energetic to happen.…