AWP Bookfair: Wow
On the quick run to Baltimore I re-memorized my pitch for A Shadow's Width. A foggy day made the driving interesting from time to time, ethereally scenic at others. An early start had me entering the city in good time for the AWP ("Associated Writing Programs" is how I think of…
AWP, Here I Come
After winning (by donating in support of the people of Minnesota) a chat with the Publisher of Dzanc Books, one of the most concrete results of that chat was the suggestion I make my way to the Associated Writing Programs conference in Baltimore. A Saturday pass costs little and…
An Amazing Day
(c)Edward Carmien carmien@mac.com AI represents both a terrible threat to human intellectual work and a powerful tool. These contrary truths represent a great example of how contrasting, even conflicting ideas collide with us every day. I despise the work writing students turn in…
Last night, Sammy Chavin-Grant of @indivisible.org emphasized that moments of urgency are met most effectively when sustained grassroots infrastructure is already in place.
What good big brains they've got up there in Edmonton
A new direction?
#TTRPG #RPG #OSR #DnD #D&D #BECMI #Mystara #Roleplaying #HobbyGaming #Fantasy #DragonMagazine #Dungeon
on top of everything else, the amount of time & energy small publications need to spend on this kind of stuff now really seems unsustainable
The importance of On Spec cannot be overstated. The magazine's editor, Diane Walton, has done incredible work for more than 30 years
On Spec is eligible as semiprozine.
It would be really great to see her get her first Hugo nod as best editor (short form), since this year will be her last chance.
It’s Always the Vocabulary
...and other benefits of charity. Thanks to Book Club Mom I've got an image of a grocery store paperback display to share. About a week ago I enjoyed a short conversation with the publisher of a small but award-winning press. I won an auction for the chance to "Ask Me…
Creepy SF stuff like this should stay in books…
ICE out. On strike.
And at the Center of the Maze…
Photograph: Dimitar Todorov/Alamy It has been an exciting week. Amidst the rush of a new semester blowing in on cold winter wings (just wait 'till May!), the bustle of ordinary life, and another stride forward to a dark future for the gleaming city on the hill, I…
Quite A Pickle: The Amazing Moment
I've sent A Shadow's Width to about 30 small and medium sized presses. Not every one I could send it to, not every press accepting unsolicited queries. I acted the part of the good author citizen and tried publishers I thought published upmarket horror or work…
Sale! “The Assignment” Coming in 2028!
Sample Image Pleasant news to start the new year! "The Assignment," a short 1600 word story I wrote recently (blogged about it September 21) of unusual form and structure. It's an "epistolary" story, which to my mind previously meant "a story written as a…
On Professional Proofreading
Once upon a time, after blue jeans but before the contemporary age of publishing, writers who sold a ms. received the attentions of an editor and a proofreader, among other things. Now, more functions of traditional publishing houses rest at the desk of literary…
We did this 👉1.5 BILLION engagements on No Kings and protest content in 2025. That’s not a trend — that’s a movement. When millions speak up together, power has no choice but to listen. Here’s to even louder people-power in 2026. 💪🔥
Flying Fickle Finger of (Artistic) Fate
Some of my very early memories of television relate to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which means I'm not as old as blue jeans but possibly older than dirt. A recurring feature that no doubt flew right over my head? the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award,…
On Readers (again)
Just a few weeks back I wrote about readers as I appreciated the input of a fellow author, one who is a published novelist (which I am not, yet). No word from other potential blurb writers to date, but I do have an interesting moment from the academic side of my writing life to…
On Readers
NYC Public Library. From their website. I recall writing about readers willing to read a ms. and provide comments. Tremendously helpful, though one must also use such feedback with care. Who is the reader? What do they know? It was a reader, fond of beach reading, who simply could not…
🥁 It's Pushcart time! 🥁
Almost impossible to choose again, but here are our 2025 nominees:
Lungs by Busayo Akinmoju
Come F*** Yourself by Sylvie Althoff
Grand Mal by Mary Buchanan
Deliver by Safiya Cherfi
They Promised This Would Be Beautiful by Elena Sichrovsky
Strangler Fig by Katharine Tyndall
Really great article about @onspecmag.bsky.social in Canada's national broadcaster's website today.
Please consider nominating On Spec for a Semiprozine Hugo Award in 2026, as well as Dinana Walton for Best Editor short form.
They have done so much good for the genre.
www.cbc.ca/arts/on-spec...
I see perhaps I was too optimistic when I suggested in a paper I gave at Seattle WorldCon last August that all the Star Trek variants contain within them some element of utopian thought thanks to the Great Bird of The Galaxy's founding ideals. Could be a paper in that for LACon V in 2026...
The Truest Lies in the Business, Part 2
Sir Terry Pratchett wrote “Stories want to end. They don’t care what happens next.” In Part 1 of The Truest Lies in the Business I discussed "Stories want to end." Here we move on to "They don't care what happens next." In the best tradition of double-speak…
The Truest Lies in the Business, Part 1
Nothing particular to do with the literary topic. Right? Sir Terry Pratchett wrote "Stories want to end. They don't care what happens next." Among the best lies in the business, written by one of the best liars of the past fifty years, it is a startling…
Trump is doubling health care premiums. Republicans are starving kids and militarizing our streets. If Schumer won’t stand up to that, he shouldn’t lead.
