I started the Holiday Recommended Reading List when I realized that I point out all the great holiday stories in January, after the season has passed. I am always a month behind in reporting what I read, and that will continue as I catch up on the Recommended Reading List. I got behind this year, […]
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…to this day. I was, in the parlance of children, eight-and-a-half. Apollo 8 had left Earth’s orbit and was the first crewed spaceflight to fly to the Moon. They orbited 10 times. What I remember the most, though, was their travel to “the backside” of the Moon. Their signal would cut out. The first time […]
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…to writing this particular novella. I’m not even sure it was supposed to be a novella. (I kinda doubt it.) A book editor of mine, Lou Anders, asked me to take part in an anthology of his. Sideways in Crime is a really good anthology of alternate history crime stories. I was writing something else […]
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I learned something a bit startling late last year. I was putting together the reading list for my in-person science fiction mystery class, and I realized that most of the books I wanted my students to read were out of print—and there was no electronic edition. Most of them were anthologies that came out in […]
Continue ReadingI taught a workshop, and spent a lot of January reading stories in manuscript. (I still have a lot to go because of a stupidly busy February.) I ended up reading a novel that was awful. The writing was good; the situation implausible; the characters all dumber than rocks. But I couldn’t figure out how […]
Continue ReadingFebruary got away from me. I was working on a deadline and dealing with several other things. Plus a nightmare course at school that I eventually dropped. (The course was cursed; the original prof had left the university suddenly, so they substituted a woman whose Spanish was as good as mine [which is to say, […]
Continue ReadingIt’s been an interesting reading month. I started reading a book on West Side Story, which looked truly interesting. It was unbelievably boring, but I finished it anyway. I’m not usually that completist. I think it simply points out how tired I am and how unwilling I was to look for something new. I read […]
Continue ReadingOctober went by very, very fast. I have no idea how that happened. One day, the month started, and the next, it ended. Part of that was because the Business Master Class was at the end, and required a lot of prep. Next October, we hold the final Business Master Class, and we’ll limit attendance, […]
Continue ReadingNow, here’s something fun. Alternate history stories about changes in history that occurred not because someone lost a war or won a battle, but because of something non-violent. No assassinations failing, no bombings unsolved. No. Instead, someone won an election who shouldn’t have…or, in my case, got impeached as he should have. Yes, I’m talking […]
Continue ReadingTypos abound, even here on my website. I had this labeled August 2019 for the longest time. Who knew that I would be able to recommend books I would read a year from now? Seriously, though, August started out well, with the Amanda Quick book that I just devoured. I had a lot of other […]
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