We’ve been on the east side of the Mississippi often the last few weeks. Good friends over there, and last night we had Thanksgiving Feast at the house of some very good ones. Smoked turkey (my favorite way to have it—frankly, I’ve always found turkey a problematic bird to east, much too dry to be really tasty, but a good carrier for other flavors, so it behooves one to stuff them creatively and add spices as necessary) Brussels sprouts, potatoes, stuffing, three kinds of desert four kinds of wine, coffee, and some excellent conversation, not to mention a large, cheerful hearth with a substantial fire…ah, it was almost a Norman Rockwell moment!…
Category: blog
Why I Am (Partly) Not A Conservative
I try to ignore Glenn Beck. I think he’s pathetic. All he can do is whine about things he quite often doesn’t understand. For instance, his latest peeve has to do with being bumped out of line by science fiction. Yeah, that’s right. Glenn Beck’s book Broke has been number 1 on Amazon for a while and it apparently got beat out finally by a science fiction anthology.
His complaint that this is from “the left” is telling. First off he’s trying to make it sound like some profound philosophical issue, that a science fiction collection outsold his book on Amazon. …
The Celebration of the Book, 2010
I’m taking some time to put on my President’s hat and talk about our upcoming event.
We’re a week away from the Celebration. October 23rd at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.
If you’ve been reading this blog any length of time, then you know about my involvement. For the last 8 1/2 years I’ve been working for it, trying to make it better, five of those years as president. We’ve done some pretty cool things in that time.
The Missouri Center for the Book has, like most such organizations, been undergoing some ups and downs the last few years. We have been reorganizing in order to be a more vital part of the literary and reading community in Missouri. …
56
It has been my practice to, as best as I can, as much as I’m allowed, ignore birthdays. My birthdays. I love the attention, don’t get me wrong, but I have always been a bit nervous about attention, especially undeserved attention. I mean, what the hell, it’s just another day of the week, a point in the arbitrary cycle of time humans impose on nature, and I’m just passing through. What’s so special about that?
Birthdays are markers, to be used by people to order their universes. It matters little to me that I am now 56 years old (fifty-six! shit, how did that happen? …
On The Road Part Two
A quick follow-up to my abbreviated MadCon report just past. Harlan Ellison arrived at the hotel Thursday evening, around eight o’clock. Only a few of us were in the lobby. Allen Steele, Peter David, Donna, and myself. Peter David’s wife Kathleen and their daughter (who Harlan “terrorized” to our surprise and her later delight). From that point on it became a really good experience. All the rumors that had been floating around about Harlan’s imminent demise proved exaggerated. Though he didn’t look his best—clearly he has been ailing—and he arrived wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms (Pierre Cardin, as he repeatedly joked, since he wore them all weekend), as the weekend progressed he came more and more alive.…
Home Again
We are returned from the wilds of Wisconsin.
In the last post I mentioned we were attending MadCon 2010 in Madison, touted as the last convention Harlan Ellison will ever do. Much speculation runs rampant over the internet about this and his own presentations at the convention will doubtless throw gasoline on the inferno. Having spent more than a small amount of time in his company this past weekend, I will report only that the rumors are pretty much exactly that. Those who know him, know what’s more or less going on, and those who don’t, unless they were present at MadCon and heard what he had to say, do not know what is going on, and after a few conversations with the man I will not post about it here.…
On The Road
Tomorrow morning, probably before the sun is up, we will be on the road to Madison, Wisconsin. We’re going to attend a little convention called MadCon 2010. When you click on the link you will see a note explaining that the guest of honor, Harlan Ellison, will not, due to illness, make it. Well, that’s changed, apparently. Harlan says he is feeling up to it and will be getting on a plane tomorrow and will appear.
Last time we saw Harlan was in 1999, at a convention called Readercon (which is a genuinely spiffy excellent convention because it is ALL ABOUT BOOKS—no movies, no anime, no costumes, none of that, just BOOKS) and he was in great form and we had a marvelous time.…
Didn’t They Throw The Tea In The Harbor…?
Christine O’Donnell is one of those public figures that emerge from time to time that make any writer of fiction envious of reality. Only a truly gifted writer could make someone like this up and then sell her as a plausible character.
At the heart of it, she is the problem with the Tea Party.
Here’s the thing I’ve never understood about the far right: fiscal responsibility is well and good and certainly we could do with a lot more—we could have used some for the last thirty years, certainly, a period during which Republicans (and by inference conservatives) have been largely in control of Congress—but how come is it we can’t seem to get candidates who are just about that without dragging all the social issue crap along with them? …
A Week’s Worth of Stuff
This past week some things have moved forward which please me. The Missouri Center for the Book is about it have a new Facebook page. I made the decision to put it up now, in advance of the total website make-over, because I think it will be necessary to get the upcoming Celebration promoted more efficiently. That event will be October 23rd, again in Columbia. Barring other avenues of advertising, I think this one will be essential.
It’s happening. Also, the new website design is coming along quickly and when that is up there will be regular blog posts, and a special section from the state poet laureate. …
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? …