Archive for writing news

…And Eric Cartman as Sarasti.

Calling out for some suggestions here. I seem to be juggling a small spate of interviews/online discussions at the moment, one of which is a long-overdue contribution to something called “My Book, the Movie“. This is an ongoing blog in which various authors dream a bit about who they’d like to see direct/star in/roach-wrangle movie […]

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So if I’m done, why do I still have this queasy lump in my stomach?

Two weeks of edits. Two weeks of no exercise, skipped meals, late nights, and cats who either don’t understand that a 3:00 a.m. feeding should allow them to wait a little past their usual 8:00 a.m. breakfast slot while their exhausted can opener tries to sleep in a bit, or who simply reject that premise […]

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Pole Star

My buddy (and fellow author) Brent Hayward sent me this photographic evidence from Poland: evidently I’ve made it into the bookstores at Warsaw International Airport. I don’t whether to be pleased by this news (there was a whole stack!) or depressed (they hadn’t sold any of them; there was a whole stack…) Either way, though, […]

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Fear and the French

I’ve gone back and posted a coda at the end of Wednesday’s fear and religion entry; the recent hysteria at Republican rallies is chillingly consistent with Oxley et al‘s findings that Conservative=Fearful. But let’s move on to fear and horror of a more existential sort, the kind you might find in the shadow of a […]

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Yeah, I know. Merciful extended silence again. Not that there’s nothing to talk about. There’s a paper just out in Consciousness & Cognition which purports to prove that logical thinking requires consciousness (which would seem to contradict other findings, but I haven’t read the paper yet so who knows). I’ve been ruminating on the inherent […]

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A couple of you asked about my offhand reference to an Israeli book deal a few days back. It now appears to be a go. Blindsight, by Peter Watts, is being translated into Hebrew by Kitdmat Eden, of which I know little beyond the fact that they put out some very nice cover designs. Or […]

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I’m teaching a course on Writing Science Fiction at the University of Toronto

Or at least, I might be. Depends on how many people sign up. We’re talking Wednesday evenings, between October 1 and November 19: eight two-and-a-half hour sessions covering the hallmarks of the genre, tips and techniques on research and world-building, plot construction, character development— you know the list. It will be hands-on. You will write. […]

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Blame Him.

So why have I been so silent lately? It’s not as though there’s been any recent shortage of events worthy of scorn. Sarah Palin brought home the Moron Vote— that most vital of American voting demographics— to the Republicans. The craven cocksucking cowards leading every major Canadian political party got together and decided to exclude […]

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Speciation Ahoy!

Strange Horizons has just posted this bipartite piece on Scott Bakker’s Neuropath and my own Blindsight. It’s billed as a review, but it doesn’t read as one so much as a brief comparative essay on the thematic focii of the two novels. The reviewer— one Nader Elhefnawy, visiting professor of Literature out of U. Miami— […]

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Rumor Control

I have it on reasonably good authority that David Hartwell, during a panel on upcoming Tor titles at last week’s Worldcon, announced that he had sent me a contract for a new novel and was awaiting my response. Technically this might be true. In terms of the take-home message, however — i.e. the reasonable inference […]

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