Story #4 is done

I only stayed up until 12:30 last night finishing story #4. So I suppose that’s progress. But I’m still a week behind. And I still want to write two flash stories in a week to get caught up. Anyway, this one is called “For We So Love The Worlds”, 700 words about a soul working […]

I survived Readercon and all I got was more books to read

I survived Readercon by spending most of my time writing and socializing. I also went to some panels, bought a couple books, went to a couple kaffeeklatches, and heard a couple readings. I’ll post my notes after I’ve looked up names, etc. Readercon is also a great excuse to go out for Sichuan food. It […]

Readercon is also raspberry week

The raspberry harvest always peaks right around the week of Readercon. I have quarts and quarts in the fridge and the freezer. I offered up a pint of raspberries to the con suite. And there’s still more raspberries that I don’t have time to pick because of Readercon. Hang on there, raspberries, don’t drop off. […]

Why I like the Kirk Poland

Bad Prose competition. Where else can you savor such gems as: Her face had the fragrance of the gibbous moon. and …a pile of dessicated eyeballs. It held in its hand a terrible battleaxe, the likes of which she had never seen. And now I know why nipples go spung.

Readercon writers act out

I promise this is the last post I’m going to make about Readercon. The Reading Aloud workshop last year left me interested in learning more about acting. This year, there was almost an Actorcon track, with a repeat of Reading Aloud and two hour workshops about acting and improv.

Readercon and facing the future–not

At the “So, What’s New?” panel at Readercon, Warren Lapine launched a salvo that current science fiction is doing a remarkably poor job of dealing with the future. As Paolo Balcigalupi said, SF set in the future needs to at least tip its hat to global warming. There’s story after story after story in global […]

Readercon Characters

I supposed I was primed to enjoy this year’s Readercon because I found the very first panel so interesting. The official title was “The Origin of Character in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,” and James Patrick Kelly led off with a quick precis of Julian Jaynes’s thesis that ancient people had a divided mind […]

Readercon and reviewing

Charles Brown always seemed like yet another éminence grise you get used to seeing every year at Readercon. No more. He gave us Locus Magazine and made sure it would keep going. Then he died on the way home from the con. All I can do is offer my respect and admiration.

Readercon: the recovery begins

Readercon was fun, but when all is said and done, it’s good to see the sun. I came home with my head buzzing, full of all sorts of ambitions of establishing my own place in the metaphorical sun, to find a yard full of bees, weeds, and red raspberries dropping off into my hand. The […]

Readercon 20 coming right up

Readercon 20 starts this Thursday through Sunday. Even it’s my favorite con in the area, it always sneaks up on me. There’s already friends and teachers I expect to see. And there’s so many interesting things in the schedule, I’m sure I’ll be a blithering wreck by Sunday afternoon. So, my posting may get a […]