William Shatner and I will be at ComicPalooza this weekend
I’ve been a fan of the original Captain Kirk for a long time. A few years back, I got to have dinner with him at a Bombardier Safety Standdown. I gave a presentation that day, and he had the dinner speech. Dinner was fun. Ardith got to sit next to him and charm him. I…Read More
Book Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Another strong book from the Hugo Awards list. The concept: In the distant future, AIs run space stations and ships. They also get their grimy little electronic mitts into people by way of implants. The Radch are essentially a human empire, run by the Lord of the Radch. She has many clones, but with the…Read More
Book Review: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Beautifully written. Bas-Lag is a well-crafted, steam punk world full of fantasy science and fantastic species. I would not want to live there. Mieville put together a wonderful story that is, in his words, “new weird.” This book won a Hugo Award and it was well deserved. I listened to this as an audio book…Read More
Extend or Delete: Some Thoughts on Revisions
Today, during an interview, I was asked to read from SPARK. I hadn’t revisited the text for a while other than to fact-check myself. As I read, I found myself distracted by thinking simultaneously about how I’d rephrase a sentence or two if I were writing/revising the text now. That’s the danger of reading your…Read More
10 Questions with Carol Novello
In the future, “Carol Novello” will likely make the transition from mere proper noun to verb. Want something difficult done that requires both head and heart? You’ll have to Carol Novello it. I was privileged to meet Carol when we were both guests on Bonnie D. Graham‘s show a while back. I bought Carol’s book,…Read More
10 Questions with Fern Brady
Fern Brady operates at full throttle. She is the CEO and Owner of Inklings Publishing (my publisher). She is a polymath with careers in teaching and real estate. Oh, yeah, she’s also an author, and is the head of the Houston Writer’s Guild. Full. Throttle. Her debut novel, United Vidden, came out in 2020 and…Read More
New Year, New Mug, New Socks, New Motivation
I’m delighted to bid farewell to 2021. Our family had a particularly bad end of the year. The darkest moment was the passing of our granddaughter, Claire Elizabeth. As much as I want 2022 to be better, I said the same thing in 2021 and it turned out to be much worse that 2020, so…Read More
Isolation Socks
No. That’s not a typo. A while back, my daughter gave me these socks. In the past couple of years, I’ve grown fond of wilder, more expressive socks. I’m also a Trekkie. Spock socks. What’s not to love? At first, I only wore these on weekends. The ears, you know. They stick out and when…Read More