Some assorted good things: There’s now only one published Joanna Russ story that I don’t have a copy of (and a university library may be sending me that last one soon). And I’m making progress on a couple of Russ-related projects. I’ve been helping the Otherwise Award folks catch up on various tasks and get […]
This past Tuesday, Mary Anne broke up with me, ending a relationship that lasted a little over 26 years. The relationship has been on rocky ground for at least the past two years, during which time we’ve been doing couples therapy. (We didn’t talk publicly about our 25th anniversary, in late 2022, because it would’ve […]
I was going to say that it’s been a difficult and stressful week, but I’m trying to remind myself to question that kind of totalizing narrative. So maybe it would be more accurate to say: It’s been a complicated week for me, with a couple of particularly difficult and stressful events that I’m not ready […]
I’m sad that Howard Waldrop has died, age 77. I’m trying to remember when I first encountered his work. Probably sometime in the ’80s? Even though he was never all that widely popular with readers, several prominent editors loved his work; for example, I might have seen a story or two of his in Omni, […]
I confess that one reason I like Bluesky is that my posts sometimes get more attention there than they tend to on other non-FB platforms. I post the same things to all the platforms I’m on. Usually the original post is on Facebook, and then I post abbreviated versions of it to all the other […]
A month ago, File 770 carried an item in which an author said that he had asked ChatGPT for a blurb for his book. He seemed to be delighted that ChatGPT had not only read his book, but loved it; ChatGPT called it a “captivating narrative.” The author continued: Could [ChatGPT] have reached into my […]
I recently noticed and corrected some typos in a couple of old posts of mine, which reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to ask about: Do you want to be told about typos in things you post? I definitely do. If you see a typo in something I post (and the typo isn’t a […]
Here are some thoughts about three old sf stories. (These thoughts include spoilers.) The stories aren’t particularly connected to each other except by appearing in the same anthology. Story 1: “Environment,” by Chester S. Geier (1944) The two male human protagonists, who are the only characters in the story, constantly say each other’s names when […]
KTO recently gave me a nifty kitchen device: a Bartelli soft-edge ambidextrous can opener. Instead of cutting through the top of the lid of the can, it cuts through the side edge of the lid of the can. It has some advantages over traditional can openers: You don’t have to squeeze it to puncture the […]
I’m reading The Omnibus of Science Fiction, an anthology edited by Groff Conklin, first published in 1954 and reprinted in 1980. The 1980 edition has a 1-page foreword by R. Scott Latham. I like this line from that: “We came to science fiction, not to escape what we were, but to explore what we might […]
At some point in the late 1980s, someone (I think Geoff H) suggested that it might be fun to create a Once Upon a Time variant based on the conventions/tropes of space opera. (In place of the fairytale tropes of OUaT.) So we cut a bunch of index cards in half and invited friends to […]
Some assorted life updates: 15 days after my lower back started hurting, it’s feeling a lot better, though still some pain. (No advice, please.) I now have even more sympathy than usual for those of you whose back issues don’t go away. I posted my first post in the local Buy Nothing group on Facebook, […]