It seems unlikely I’ll finish another book before this Sunday—if I do it will probably be Stefanie Pintoff‘s second Simon Ziele mystery, A Curtain Falls. I read the first in the series, In The Shadow of Gotham, not too long ago and enjoyed it. It’s a period mystery, set in 1905, and features a progressive police detective from New York—Ziele—who teams up with an amateur criminologist, Alistair Sinclair, who is attempting to construct a science of criminal behavior. Ms. Pintoff avoids many pitfalls by keeping the level of expertise firmly locked in 1905 and Sinclair makes as many if not more wrong conclusions as right, but it was an entertaining piece of work and the evocation of 1905 New York was excellent. …
Category: Life
Season’s Wish
We didn’t get around to sending out cards this year. It’s been busy and in some ways not particularly festive, but we’ve had worse years, so there really is no excuse. Time just got away from us.
Which happens more and more lately. So in lieu of a card (which we promise to send out next year) I thought I’d post this and for those of you who come by, we can wish you well and hope for a terrific next year.
We had Changes of Great Significance happen in 2011. I signed with a new agent(s) and promptly spent a good chunk of the year rewriting a pair of novels at their requests, which is a good thing. …
Many Lives
This is just very yeah.
When asked why I write, I have many answers, but this captures the entire inner gestalt of why.
Not getting to live all the lives I wanted to. I know what she means. I assumed at one time I would be a writer, an actor, a musician, a producer-director, and all the other things that attach to these ambitions. In a way, I did get to do them, but not the way I thought I would.
Anyway, this is marvelous.…
Destabilizing The Family
This is an unscientific response to a ridiculous claim. Rick Santorum, who wishes to be the next Bishop In Charge of America (or whatever prelate his church might recognize) recently made the claim that Gay couples are going to destabilize the family in America in order to accommodate their lifestyle.
We’ve all been hearing this claim now for, oh, since gays stopped sitting by and letting cops beat them up on Saturday nights without fighting back. Ever since Gay Pride. Even on my own FaceBook page I had someone telling me I was blinded by the “Gay Agenda” and that the country was doomed—that because of the Gay Agenda little children were being taught how to use condoms in school and this—this—would bring us all to ruin.…
No Politics
Not this morning. It’s hard, I know, because so much is going on that I could comment about, but…
The novel revision I mentioned a couple of posts back is done. Done and at my agent. I did a top to bottom revision, adding in the new material that desperately wanted to be included, and except for yesterday it all went remarkably well.
Yesterday, though…yes…Murphy was in residence.
We went to the gym and then Donna had an errand to run, so I descended to the dungeon office and began. I’d already started the final work on the last chapter a couple days earlier, but I had Other Things To Do on both Tuesday and Wednesday that kept me away. …
Dressing Up
It’s Hallowe’en. No news to anyone, we’ve been immersed in it for weeks now. But this year I’ve been doing a lot of introspective reminiscing and I’ve come to realize that Hallowe’en should always have been my favorite festive occasion.
See, I’ve been wearing costumes all my life.
The last time I went out on a Hallowe’en night in costumes I was 14. A little old you say? I agree, but I wasn’t doing the trick’or’trreating, I was being part of the security detail accompany a group of littler kids. Nevertheless, I always liked getting into costume, into a character, and I went as a town sheriff, complete with a six-gun on my hip. …
An Age of Wonder and Annoyance
I have two things to talk about that are related by the slenderest of threads. Bear with me.
First I’d like to say something about how marvelous is the age in which we live, at least from the perspective of someone who has now lived in a couple of “ages” since arriving on this planet in 1954.
A short while ago I had lunch. While having lunch I like to watch something, so I popped the DVD of The Right Stuff  into my player and settled back to my roast beef and movie. While watching, it occurred to me how blase I’ve become at this technology.…
10/12
It has never bothered me that my birthday is on Columbus Day. I feel no affinity for Chris and except for the fact that I was born in the United States find no reason to take on any kind of anniversary significance. It’s my birthday—and the birthday of many others—and that’s it. I’m not even particularly moved by the celebratory excuse such a calendrical coincidence provides.
Legally, anyway, Columbus Day has been moved.
I’m a bit stunned today. I went to my FaceBook page and found nearly 70 well-wishes on the occasion. But I’m also a bit surprised at myself for sitting here now remarking on the day. …
Steve Jobs: A Quality of Expectation
I do not own an Apple computer. I do all my work on PCs because, well, it worked out that way.
I had an Apple. First-generation MacIntosh, to be precise. It didn’t last.
My partner, Donna, got interested in computers back in the early and mid-80s. When I say “interested” I mean on the level of “hm, that looks cool, I wonder what it would be like to…” and not on the level of “that way lies the future, we gotta have one!” Being somewhat dense when it came to reading her enthusiasms (and separating hers from my own), by various strange avenues, she ended up getting a MacIntosh for Christmas. …
An Unstaged Moment
It’s Wednesday, a few days since Archon, and I’m now reconsidering the convention. I didn’t have a bad time. I had some great conversations (thank you Vanessa, Jill, Rachel, Lorenzo, Tom, Selina, Lynn, and the folks who showed up at the workshops and no doubt several others I’ve neglected to name) and the art show held some nice pieces, etc.
Usually when I get done with a convention, I’m inspired. I get jazzed up and come home rarin’ to write deathless prose. Not this time. I’ve been writing constantly on one thing or another for the last six years, almost all novels. …