See You Sunday
All local folks, please join me on Sunday afternoon at Settle Down Easy Brewing Company, 2822 Fallfax Drive, Falls Church, VA, 2pm to 6pm (although we may be...
Why Are Pilots Titled Pilot? Be More Creative...
Review: Orphan Black: Echoes 1.1 “Pilot” I wasn’t sure what to expect from the sequel to Orphan Black. I wasn’t quite expecting this. Set in the 2050s, it at...
One, Two, Three Kinky Ladies - Sex Worker Positivity in Midsomer Murders
Sometimes, I watch detective shows. I don’t typically review them here because it’s not the focus, but I do watch them.Lately, I’ve been poking around...
Buried In Non Fiction
I’m still plowing through the non-fiction parts of the Hugo packet, but am about to move on to the Lodestar. Which means there will be reviews again. I have...
What a Week
Happy Independence Day, U.S. of A. Happy Yeet the Tories Day, U.K. Look, I don’t often talk about politics here, but that was quite an election. The Tory...
So...Uh...
Guess who hasn’t watched any spec fic TV this week. Yeah, that will be me.What have I been watching?Recorded science panels from Balticon. Midsomer Murders,...
But AI Is Great For The Environment - According to that One Study in Nature
This paper has started to circulate. It’s in Nature and appears to have been peer reviewed. So, is it true? Should I give up writing or use AI to write...
Ready for Summer Reading?
It is that time of year. I have two reviews this week, of very different books.Review: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle Chuck Tingle is a satirical smut writer,...
Last Girls and Beer!
So, first off, we postponed the June Books & Brews to July because nobody could make it. This means we have two events in July. The first is at Settle Down...
Who is Mrs Frost?
The caption on this, delivered in perfect Hermione voice by a small child: He must have crashed it. Again. Doctor Who 1.9 “Empire of Death” So, Sutekh has...
Computers in Space!
I had the great privilege to spend a bit of time with Vandi Varma in Pasadena. She’s a leading NASA roboticist and is one of the two people who wrote the...
Nebula Winners Analysis Part Two
And now for part two. Nebula Award for Short Story Winner: “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia Apparently everyone wanted cute robots...
Off in Ohio
Once again, I’m not actually here. I’ll most likely be in the Columbus convention center doing…well, I don’t know yet! After that I’ll be at home for a while...
Cliffhangers...Grumble.
Doctor Who 1.8 “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” …and I won’t see the second half right away. Dang it on the timing of cliffhangers! I really thought Susan Triad...
Turbulence, AKA Why You Should Always Wear Your Seatbelt
On my fight back to Pasadena something bad happened. Suddenly our plane was tossed, entering about a 30 degree roll and sliding sideways. It was over very...
Nebula Winners Analysis Part One
Splitting this into two parts…one this week and one next! This week I’m going to talk about the three awards that are not for adult literary works - the Game...
Back from Pasadena
Highlights of the Nebula conference:The volunteer who came up and had a Barbie doll accept the Ray Bradbury award for the Barbie novel. Hollywood people...
The Sordid History of Digital Rights Management
So, anyone who has bought my ebooks might have noticed that they are DRM free…mostly. Sometimes a distributor will slap the technology on my books unwanted...
More Hugo Thoughts So Far
Recency bias is a thing. Turns out everything I’ve read this week has been rereads or excerpts, except for the most recent October Daye novel, which was...
Pasadena, Ho!
Barring some hideous flight problems (Good news, it’s not a Boeing) I’ll be in Pasadena when you read this, doing professional development. Con season will...
Disasters, Apocalypses, and Social Media
Movie review: The Wandering Earth II: Burn CW: Child death, cute robot dog “death” (The robot dog’s probably backed up, but…) I don’t normally review second...
The Precious Place of the Sail Trainer
Photo is of the Amerigo Vespucci in New York in 2017. When I got to Baltimore, I couldn’t help but notice an extra set of masts. The Constellation is a...
Novels and Hugo Thoughts
Just a couple today, then some quick thoughts on my Hugo reading so far. Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi This book is vintage Scalzi. You pretty much...
Balticon Was Awesome
Great panels, amazing people, fantastic empanadas and a visit from the Ecuadoran Navy bearing chocolate. (The picture is the deck of the Guayas, the navy’s...
Badass Gungans and Land Mines
Actual Arizona, just saying… Star Wars: The Clone Wars 3.21 “Padawan Lost” During a mission, Ahsoka, sent to perform a flanking mission up a tough cliff, is...
Big Dumb Objects and Thoughts on The Expanse
I finally, this week, finished reading The Expanse…and I have thoughts. The Expanse is, at its core, a variant on the Big Dumb Object trope (or should we...
Mea Culpa
So sorry - have ponies! I meant to do Thursday and Friday posts before I left for Balticon. But Amtrak melted down Wednesday night and I was worried about...
The Sun's Angry Today - Let's Talk Geomagnetic Storms
Last week right before the geomagnetic storm that hit Friday, somebody asked me “Where is this happening?” This was a perfectly intelligent professional…but...
Thoughts on the Expanse
Literally all I’ve read this week other than a couple of shorts was blitzing The Expanse to get book 9 read before the Hugo packet dropped. (They said in a...
Sale to Third Flatiron!
Also, have a picture of me riding a giant horse. I just signed a contract for the publication of “When to Nurture, When to Prune” in Third Flatiron’s next...
Why Are Lizard Men Always Evil?
And I don’t mean the little uy you’ll need to hunt for in this photo. I mean lizard people in SPACE. Divergent 3: Allegiant Okay, so I didn’t much care for...
Our Ambiguous Relationship with Rodents
“Squirrel!” Lots of them in our neighborhood, including the unfortunate individual I have nicknamed “Stumpy.” His tail is only about an inch and a half long,...
Dragons and Weird Magic
A little short this week, and next week might be thin too as I’m currently trying to get in a long-awaited reread of the Expanse before the Hugo packet drops...
See You at Balticon...
...plus rats and hopepunk
Star Trekking, Across The...
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 3.5 “Corruption” I did say something about badass lady senators. Also badass lady planetary rulers. This episode is all Padme and...
Will We Ever Have General AI?
“AI” is a buzzword right now…hyped as a replacement for writers (no), but also doing real work in meteorology, in medicine. But what we are calling AI is...
Spiders and Bodyguards
Short post because of what I’ve been up to lately…which has mostly been poking at RPG books. Review: The Eye of Winter by Jaques Smit CW: Realistic...
Rats and Hopepunk
So, four announcements this week! They’re like city buses. Game On! Remember this anthology? It’s been nominated for Best Related Work (which sounds weird)...
Trashing Chicago
Star Wars: Clone Wars 2.21 “R2 Come Home” Aww, R2. So cute. So heroic. And perfectly capable of flying a ship home by himself when the bad guys jam...
The Rise and Slow Decline of Received Pronunciation
Hands up who can think of an actor who works with their accent? Unless your accent is California, generic Midwest or, for Brits, received pronunciation (the...
Exploring Hope and Strangeness
Back from RavenCon. Which needs more ice cream. I need more ice cream. Anyone got ice cream? Review: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz This is a very...
At Ravencon
I’m actually at RavenCon right now. (Hopefully, I’m writing this right before I hit the road). I’m not speaking this year and am going to be mostly parked in...
Clones, Clones, and More Clones
Star Wars: Clone Wars 2.9 “Grievous Intrigue” So, we learn Grievous is working with Dooku because of a personal hatred of Jedi. We don’t learn why. Grievous...
Copaganda and Fantasy – Police Fiction in the 21st Century
I know a lot of people who won’t watch or read anything involving the police anymore because it’s all copaganda. I know others who are trying to navigate...
Cute Dragons and Weird Magic
Review: Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer I may be biased – Kritzer is rapidly becoming one of my favorite YA authors. Her Catnet books are utterly...
Tax Season Is Over
Which is the good news. No, actually, the good news is that my aunt, Beryl, is tying the knot with her long term partner this fall! (the picture is of the...
Clones and Musings on Superheroes
Loki 2.6 “Glorious Purpose” There’s rumors of a season 3. I don’t know quite how after this unless it’s going to focus more on Sylvie. This ending was...
A Total Eclipse of the Sun
We live on a unique planet in its precise details, but many of the things about Earth are likely out there in our universe. There are almost certainly other...
Fun With Evil Swords
Fun with evil swords and less than solid science. Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024 Whatever Trevor’s theme is this time, it’s on...
Summer Approaches
We tend to go from third winter to early summer here. The cherry trees are finally almost over and I can go outside without a mask on. Yay! No updates. I...