Back of the Envelope

Yesterday was the first day of the World Fantasy Convention .  To be honest, I didn't have too much con stuff to do, but I figured I...

Kristin and I will be going to the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego next week.  If you've seen Kristin's blog , you already kn...

I've read some of the information available on the Kindle Fire, and I've come to the conclusion that the Kindle will live or die by ...

I announced last week that my story, "Her Majesty's Guardian," was out.  That was the e-mail version, which you received if yo...

My s hort story, "Her Majesty's Guardian," is being sent out to Daily Science Fiction 's e-mail list today.  It'll be...

I've been looking over my most recent blog posts, and I'm worried that my blogging skills have atrophied.  Once upon a time I wrote ...

One of the most common questions writers get is "Where do you get your ideas?"  Their most common answer is "I don't know...

Kristin and I went hiking this weekend.  It was an adventure.  By which I mean, Irene and the following storms had left things a mess.  It s...

Daily Science Fiction has announced its stories for September 2011 , and if you look there at the bottom, around September 29th, you'll ...

Hurricane Irene was hyped as a dangerous storm here in New England.  But ultimately, its bark was worse than its bite.  There was a lot of r...

There's a saying that every writer needs to write a million bad words before he writes any good ones.  Like most aphorisms, there's ...

Kristin and I saw Cowboys & Aliens last night.  I had something of a professional interest, as one of my stories had turned into a weir...

Mike Duran has argued that the craft of writing is at least as important as creativity to a writer.  If creativity is about inspiration, cr...

In 2008, I wrote a story inspired by TVTropes.org ( WARNING : this site will suck your life away if you let it).  Specifically, I postulate...

I've finally gotten around to adding Bio and Writings pages to this blog.  I'd put it off because I had a feeling it was going to ...

In case anyone's wondering what's in a Presidential Suite at a hotel, I can now say that it's about the equivalent of a nice apa...

There are some things I think everyone should have with them at all times.  A cellphone is a common one.  I personally like to have a multit...

After spending two days in Pompeii and Herculaneum, we decided to spend the next day in Naples and see one of the castles. Castel Nuovo ...

Last time, I talked about the first part of our honeymoon, in Rome.  I've been negligent in talking about the next part, which involved ...

On the Tuesday after our Sunday wedding, we departed for Rome, Italy. We took an overnight flight on Al Italia, arriving around 8 am on Wed...