Tag: writing
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A Writer’s Life, or You Don’t Know How Good You Have It
A while ago I suggested somewhat whimsically that I should write up what an aspiring writer’s life was like a half-century ago. In 1967, at 16 years old, I told my father I wanted to be a writer. He came back with a statistic that only 150 Americans make their living solely by freelance writing.…
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Begin…End…Begin Again
On June 17 I left for the beginning of my summer of Cons as I related in my last essay. On the train ride home, I sold another copy of Advance Guards to Brian and Tina, so, for those of you keeping score at home, I left with 27 books and came back with 5.…
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Where Have You Gone Frank Dadada-Oh?
I apologize to my readers, but William F. Buckley seems to have seized control of my travel-addled fingers and insists that I use obscure words in this post. I blame all that rocking on the train that seems to have scrambled my brain along with my sense of balance. When I was last seen, I…
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Coming to a Tornado Alley Near You
OK folks, in my never ending quest to pass the honor of The King of Bad Marketing™ on to somebody, anybody, else, I’ve been assured that all the right people advertise their appearances at conventions ahead of time (instead of afterwords as I have been doing). Therefore you are all officially on notice that I’ll…
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I’m Late. I’m Late!
Aargh, or whatever Charlie Brown used to say after Lucy pulled away the football. In preparation for my summer of cons, I published my second book of fiction That Has Such Creatures (only an ebook so far, but it’s on my todo list to make it a paperback before the end of next week, so…
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State of the Writer
Some article linked by Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit was talking about all the health monitors people wear on their wrists potentially giving people too much information about the state of their bodies. It prompted Glenn to quote one of his doctor friends saying, “IF YOU THINK YOU’RE HEALTHY, YOU HAVEN’T HAD ENOUGH TESTS.” Let’s hope…
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Where It All Started
A long, long time ago (1974) in a land not very far away (Hollywood), I ran into a brick wall, and that was a good thing. You see I had graduated college with my BA in History and a dream of being a successful writer. I was busy writing stories and sending them off for…
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Pleasure from Chaos
I just returned from FenCon XXI this morning. Yes, it was chaos, but to me and all those with whom I interacted, it didn’t matter. The chaos was the result of death, disease, pestilence, etc. among those good souls who volunteer their time and effort for the pleasure of the rest of us, and hopefully…
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The Fault Is Not in AI But in Ourselves
Why AI Because of All Its Faults Will Lead Us to a Better World Because I have worked in AI and I am familiar with its inner workings, I have written a number of essays on AI and its uses and abuses. I have always been ambivalent about the utility of AI, urging people to…
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Sailing Through the Desert
I wrote up my experiences at TusCon, but left out the things I saw along the way. And yes, there are things to see and contemplate on a 800 mile round trip through the desert. I only regret that I took no pictures, but navigating my cell phone to picture mode while driving 80 mph…
Musings of a Restless Mind 