Someone visited my website today, using a Google search on the phrase “What if your doctor tells you your brain is mush?” Sadly, I am not a doctor, and I can’t tell you what will happen if your brain is, in fact, mush. I can’t imagine it’s anything good, if you do have a mushyContinue reading “On the Weekend’s Writing”
On My Writing Routine
I have a writing hat. As a writer, I have a routine, much like athletes have routines to put on their game face. For me, it involves putting on a beaten-up baseball cap. It’s a white baseball cap. Says “Richmond Baseball” on it. It has a blue bill. The only significance to it is thatContinue reading “On My Writing Routine”
On Committing Fiction
I’ve committed fiction. Okay, it’s just a start. It’s hardly complete, and there’s a long way — maybe seventy, eighty thousand words — left to go. Around Easter, an idea struck me. I saw the beginning. I saw the ending. It was the part in the middle that was fuzzy. The part in the middleContinue reading “On Committing Fiction”
On Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
I opened my e-mail inbox this morning to find a press release from BOOM! Studios. BOOM! is a comic book company out on the west coast, an up-and-coming publisher that does a bit of horror comics (zombies and Cthulhu), licensed Pixar comics (The Incredibles, Cars, that sort of thing), licensed television comics (Farscape and Eureka),Continue reading “On Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”
On Leisure Society and the Ivor Novello Award
Lately, I’ve had a rash of search hits, of various phrasings, looking for the lyrics to the Leisure Society’s song, “The Last of the Melting Snow.” I bought their album, The Sleeper, about a month ago, and I’ve really been taken by it. It’s my innate Anglophilia, no doubt. 🙂 The upswing in interest mayContinue reading “On Leisure Society and the Ivor Novello Award”
On My Grandmother and Grief
I read Slate pretty much every day. Well, when I type “read,” I mean I scan the headlines, and if something pops up that looks promising, I’ll take a look. I saw a headline today — “What Americans Don’t Understand About Grief.” It’s a series of articles, beginning back in February, in which Meghan O’RourkeContinue reading “On My Grandmother and Grief”
More on the End of Short Trips
On Friday I wrote about the end of Big Finish Productions’ Short Trips line of Doctor Who anthologies. The final volume in the series, Re:Collections, is coming out next month, and it will be a “best of” volume, featuring one story from each of the preceeding twenty-eight volumes. I found on Big Finish’s website thisContinue reading “More on the End of Short Trips”
On Working With Opera
I’ve been experimenting with Opera for the past month. The world, at least the Windows world, is divided into Internet Explorer and Firefox users. With a contingent of Google Chrome users and Safari users. I’ve never used Chrome — Google’s EULA was creepy as hell — and while I’ve given Apple’s Safari a try, IContinue reading “On Working With Opera”
On Fox’s Baseball Decisions
Dear Fox, What the hell is wrong with you? You are continuing to broadcast this Yankees/Indians game. It’s twenty-two to four. Is there any reason at all that you can’t switch to a real game? The Cubs/Cardinals game is tied in the eleventh. Don’t you think your audience would be more interested in seeing someContinue reading “On Fox’s Baseball Decisions”
On the End of Short Trips
Two and a half years ago, Keith DeCandido sent me an e-mail — “How would you like to write a Doctor Who story for me? I’m putting together a Short Trips anthology, and you’re on my list of writers.” No, that’s not the actual text of Keith’s e-mail, but it’s a pretty good flavor. ShortContinue reading “On the End of Short Trips”