Re: Beginnings, Middles, & Ends

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends, by Nancy Kress is one of those books I keep coming back to. It’s so well organized: beginnings, middles, and ends crossed with plot, character, and revision. And it explicates one central idea, which gives the writer the reassuring feeling she is handing you an infinitely flexible tool that will help […]

Re: Pyramids

If you’re reluctant to commit to reading even a sub-series of Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld books, Pyramids is a pretty good standalone sampler of his humor. Teppic, heir to the kingdom of Djelibeybi, is a good-hearted character, even if he is training to be an assassin. The first third of the book is dominated by his […]

Re: Along Came A Fiddler

“Along Came A Fiddler” is a much creepier story than “Private Detective Molly,” though both are by A.B. Goelman. A violin maker, who uses unusual materials, is commissioned by a woman who wants to find out who killed her sister. He’s heard this tune before it seems. In fact, so might you, as the story […]

It snew!

Last night, it snew. And then it rained. And then it sleeted. Yick. No one wants to look at slush, so here’s another plant staying green in the snow. It’s Alpine strawberry. They don’t spread like regular strawberries and all summer they produce tiny little sweet berries.

Re: Reaper Man

Somewhat like Guards!, Guards!, it took me a while to read Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett, but this time it was because I kept having to stop and laugh and read bits out loud if anyone was within earshot. Somewhat like Mort, Death takes a leave of absence, only this time it’s forced on him, […]

Re: Guards, Guards

I first encountered Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett, in a BBC Radio adaptation, and based on the number of torrents available if you search for it, a lot of people liked it a lot more than I did. When I got around to reading the book, there were just enough funny bits to keep me […]

Farewell to Tomatoes

That’s it for fresh tomatoes. The last of the reddened tomatoes got cooked up. We got a couple of pizzas, a Khazarian lamb stew, and buffalo steak a la mexicana. The only picture I thought to take was this pizza. It’s inspired by this wonderfully obsessive page about the perfect pizza, but it’s not nearly […]

Re: Do It Tomorrow

One of the things I like about Mark Forster is that he’s clearly one of us, just trying to figure out how actually do the things you want to do. For instance, near the beginning of Do It Tomorrow, he confesses that no one was able to do the mental strength exercise from Get Everything […]

Re: Private Detective Molly

On the surface, “Private Detective Molly,” by A.B. Goelman seems to your basic SF detective story, with a contrived bad guy who wants to cheat sweet little Dorothy. And the only wise-cracking detective standing in the way is a six-inch doll, who says: I’m a sucker for a crying girl. You can call it programming […]

This is how I write

So this morning, I was staring at the computer and thinking, Hey it’s time to write. But I didn’t want to, not yet, and I told myself I was doing pretty good to even be thinking about it on time. So I went back to staring at the computer. And then I thought, You know […]