Story Sale: “Take One for the Road” to ANALOG

I found out earlier today that I sold my story “Take One for the Road” to ANALOG.  This is my 3rd professional sale, and my first to one of the “big three” and it has made this an incredibly exciting day.  I feel ill-equipped to describe just how thrilled I am to have a story [...]

Kindle “samples” save money!

I’ve recently discovered another bonus of the Kindle–which I have been using now for well over a year: samples!  Prior to having a Kindle, my book-buying behavior followed 2 possible pathways: Rush off to bookstore, browse for something that piqued my interest, and purchase on the hopes that I would like it.  I rarely had [...]

NaNo Novel

Last night, I decided which story I would tell in my second attempt at writing a novel.  I was debating between two ideas: the first is a kind of period piece set in the early 1970s; the second is a time travel story.  I’m super-excited about the second idea, but the amount of research it [...]

Colonel Roosevelt

I just found out today that on November 23, the third book in Edmund Morris’ biographical trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel Roosevelt,  is being released. I read the first book, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt in December 2001, and read the second book, Theodore Rex in February 2002. Both books were extraordinarily well-written and I [...]

The upcoming novel

I have been thinking a lot about this in preparation for my second attempt at writing my first novel: which is supposed to illustrate the story arc for a novel.  Fantasy novelist David B. Coe has a lot to say on this subject here.  When I write short stories, I generally don’t worry about the [...]

Review: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (5-stars)

This is one of the most remarkable novels of any kind that I have ever read, and a truly stunning piece of time-travel/historical/science fiction. I started reading Doomsday Book because I’d read Connie Willis’s Blackout earlier in this year and was anxiously awaiting All Clear. I knew that DOOMSDAY BOOK was a Hugo and Nebula winning and I knew [...]

Writers live for the mail

Kelly finds it amusing that the first thing I do upon arriving home from work is rush off to the mailbox to check for any mail.  I’ve tried to explain to her that writers live for the mail, but I’m not quite sure she gets it. Granted, there aren’t a whole lot of science fiction [...]

My desk, annotated

Procrastinating just slightly before I wrote tonight, I cleaned my desk.  Here is the annotated results (click on the image for a larger view).  And despite the procrastination, I managed to get in 550 words on the current work-in-progress, my 6th story of the year.

Rereading Science Fiction Age, Redux

More than three years ago, I began the process of re-reading my complete set of SCIENCE FICTION AGE magazines and commenting on each issue.  I managed to make through the first 8 issues before I became too busy to continue.  But I have always wanted to continue through the rest of the issues in the [...]

Scrivener: the ultimate writer’s tool

Today’s announcement of the upcoming release of Scrivener 2.0 gives me a good excuse to write about my experiences with this invaluable tool for writers. There are literally scores of positive reviews of Scrivener available online, and for good reason:  it is an outstanding piece of software that allows a writer to focus on his [...]

Some reading lists

In light of the Hugo Awards this weekend, a few reading lists that might be of interest to others: Hugo award-winning novels that I have read Nebula award-winning novels that I have read Campbell award-winning novels that I have read Hugo and Nebula award-winning novels that I have read And just so people can be [...]

The (elusive) paperless office

Yesterday I began the process of upgrading my work laptop to Windows 7.  This was a necessary evil for various upcoming projects.  While in my younger days, virtually every piece of software on my computer was beta, these days I am resistant to upgrades because they are so intrusive.  It takes me nearly 2 days [...]

  • Vacation in the Golden Age

    Episode 32: February 1942

    Stories by Smith, Moore, Brackett, Jones, Sturgeon

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    Episode 33 coming February 20

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    by Connie Willis

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