I’m pleased to announce that my short story, “The Adventure of the Cursed Ruin,” will appear this December in Belanger Books‘ In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson, now available for pre-order on IndieGoGo. In the Footsteps is “a collection of seventeen all new Sherlock Holmes stories written specifically for young adults. The … Continue reading The Cursed Ruin
Author: Allyn Gibson
A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.
Somehow I’ve become the kind of person who buys vintage cookbooks. In the spring, shortly after the COVID shutdown began, I bought a cookbook from 1912 published in conjunction with Washington, DC’s Heurich Brewery. At the end of July, I bought another cookbook through eBay, this one a Peanuts-themed Chex cereal cookbook published in 1991. … Continue reading A Vintage Peanuts Cookbook
I love old photographs, especially if they have a baseball connection. Consider my efforts to colorize Swampoodle Grounds, or the collection of women playing baseball in Washington in 1919. This photograph of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, taken from the west shore of the Susquehanna, circa 1906 fits the bill. It’s from a panoramic shot of … Continue reading Harrisburg Baseball, A Century Ago
Carbon Leaf, the Richmond, Virginia based band I’ve been a fan of since my days at the University of Richmond in the 90s, is running a Kickstarter for their next album, their first “full-length album in 7 years,” and several other projects, including an EP, a live album, and a Blu-Ray of the live performance. … Continue reading Carbon Leaf’s New Project
For the first time in recorded history, Comet NEOWISE is visiting the inner solar system solar system. The last time it was here, streaking through the Earth’s skies in the year 4745 BCE, in the midst of the Neolithic period. I’ve seen a number of comets in my life — Halley, in 1986; Hale-Bopp in … Continue reading Searching for Comets
To say that I was exhausted Thursday evening would be an understatement. This was publishing deadline week at work, and it’s easier — and more efficient — for me to work out of the office than from home during that week. The deadlines are tight; I don’t have time for laggy connections and connectivity issues, … Continue reading Full of Sound and Fury
Facebook reminded me yesterday morning that I went to Washington, DC six years ago — July 4, 2014 — for a Washington Nationals game and A Capitol Fourth. That trip provided me with one of my most-trafficked blog posts of the past decade on why I didn’t stand for “God Bless America” at the Nationals … Continue reading Genealogy in Old Photographs
In March. when the world was shutting down in the face of COVID-19, Elbow announced two things. First, they were postponing their upcoming live shows due to the pandemic. Sad, but not unexpected, and not something that affected me directly, as the band hadn’t announced an east coast tour. Second, they were releasing a new … Continue reading Finding Beauty in Sorrow
One of the best baseball writers working today — or, rather, one that I enjoy reading a great deal — is NBC’s Craig Calcaterra. He’s as good at writing about the individual moments as he is at taking the hundred year view, and he’s at his best when he put baseball in a social context. … Continue reading American Surrender
Working from home these last three months, I’ve had to participate in a new thing for me — video conferences! Unfortunately, I don’t own a webcam. I did, at one time, have a PlayStation 2 camera, and I had the drivers for Window XP for it, but I’ve no idea what happened to the PS2 … Continue reading Getting Productive with LEGO
Some recent thinking on Twitter… F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby enters the public domain at the beginning of 2021. Header photo: “Gatsby,” by Larry Yeiser, licensed CC BY-ND 2.0
This came across my Twitter feed late yesterday afternoon: My mom introduced me to Ronnie Roberts two years ago. I’d driven down from Pennsylvania for a Lynchburg Hillcats game — it was Margaritaville Night, and my brother’s company was the night’s t-shirt giveaway sponsor — and at the table where you picked up the t-shirt … Continue reading A Loss in the Lynchburg Baseball Community