I thought this world insane. I thought it a war criminal. I thought it a victim, a nightmare, a mystery, an obscenity. Only now do I begin to think this world could be impossible. I am being Palmer, and the things I’ve tasted make me question my own sanity. These offshoots have not forgotten how […]
Locomotive Breathless
Category: public interface, writing newsThings are happening in France. I have been told that SNCF, that country’s national train service, wants to webcast an excerpt of Vision Aveugle from the culture wing of their (vast) web site. They do this on a regular basis, evidently: conscript some French actor or writer type to read a twenty-minute book excerpt. I […]
Small Anatomy, Big Disappointment
Category: misc, whingeImmediately afterwards, Karl Schroeder rolled over and went right to sleep. Quite honestly, I was expecting more.
Don’t Mention the War.
Category: writing newsI mentioned the past couple of weeks have been kinda crappy, right? Got sick. Discovered I had to redo a bunch of duck stats, because I dumbly omitted a chunk of data from the analysis. Some Korean publisher is interested in Blindsight, but the advance they’re offering seems to get cut almost in half by […]
Quantum Economics
Category: economics, just putting it out there..., rantThe past couple of weeks have not been pleasant ones. I have been doing statistics (on the biogeography of waterfowl), and I have been reading about statistics (on the global economic meltdown). I have been delving broadly, if not deeply: postmortems in The Atlantic and Wired; an articulate if foamy rant in Rolling Stone; and […]
Pole Star
Category: writing newsWell, the polling for the NAST Award has closed and it’s official: Blindsight (or Ślepowidzenie, as it’s known in translation) was voted the best foreign sf/fantasy/horror book to appear in Poland last year. It even won by a fairly solid margin; the runner-up only got two-thirds the votes that Blindsight did. And while beating the […]
Ad Astra Schedule
Category: public interfaceFor the first time in a few years, I’ll be attending Ad Astra this weekend (March 27-29) — which is being held, as usual, way out in the boons to anyone without their own wheels. Should you be interested in a) attending, and b) learning whether I have anything new to say that I haven’t […]
Emotionally Satisfying. Intellectually Empty.
Category: ink on artSpoiler Alert: The following concerns last night’s BSG finale, which tore away the skiffy veil of the preceding four years to reveal the bastion of fundamentalist religion festering beneath. Cast thy gaze aside if you are a spirgin and haven’t yet seen the episode. This post will still be here when you come back. I […]
The Genre That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Category: ink on art, public interfaceMind Meld is at it again. This time they asked a bunch of us about taboos in sf, and the responses run the gamut. Steve Aylett laments the conservatism of the genre. Glenda Larke seems to contradict herself. Kristine Rusch and Mark Budz channel Pollyanna. Margo Lanagan has obviously walked the walk. Anna Tambour […]
Finally, someone in the mainstream media who gets marine biology.
Category: miscExperts Agree Giant, Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat