The old blog, active from 2006 through 2012.
20 Ways Science Fiction and Fantasy Are Like Mozilla Firefox
It’s a sunny day here in the Washington, D.C. area. So in lieu of doing any real writing, I’ve decided to ruminate on the ways in which the science fiction and fantasy genres are like the Mozilla Firefox browser instead. 1. Both are available across multiple platforms. You can install Firefox on your Windows PC, on your Linux PC, on your Mac (though it’s called Camino there), or even on your mobile device. Likewise, SFF spreads across TV, books,... Continue reading→
Should Novelists Sell Advertisements?
Jane Smiley writes in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times about product placements in novels. Apparently a writer sold product placements in his adolescent novel to the Cover Girl line of cosmetics. The result? Lots of publicity, triple the initial print run, and coverage in places like the Los Angeles Times. True story: I tried to convince my publisher to sell advertisements in my novel Infoquake. They didn’t go for it, which is probably to their credit.... Continue reading→
Science Fiction Writers and the Butterfly Effect
As a science fiction writer, I’m in the business of making predictions about the far future. This can be a very tricky enterprise. If you’re wrong, you’ll inevitably look foolish and backwards and stuffed full with 21st century prejudices. If you’re right, you’ll be long dead anyway, and you’ll probably still look foolish to your contemporaries. I think part of the lack of respect that the science fiction genre receives from the mainstream has to... Continue reading→
More Infoquake Reviews and Online Content
The infoquake is coming! The (semi-)official North American release date for Infoquake is July 11, 2006 — yes, that July 11, less than a month away. Pre-orders are available on Amazon.com, Booksense, and Barnes & Noble. More news: Chapter 5 and New Exclusive Article on Orbital Colonies Online Chapter 5 of Infoquake has been posted online, with two new original illustrations by Josef K. Foley. Also new online is the background article on orbital colonies,... Continue reading→
On the Writing of Sequels
I’m currently trying to finish my second novel, MultiReal, and I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about sequels. There are really two kinds of sequels. The first kind of sequel is the continuation of a story that didn’t necessarily need continuing in the first place. Think The Empire Strikes Back. Even though the remaining five films in the saga were (supposedly) roiling around in the murky depths of George Lucas’s mind before... Continue reading→
My Trip to France (Part 2: The Wrath of Cannes)
Some more of my (remarkably obvious) observations about the French. Continue reading→
My Trip to France (Part 1)
I'm in France on vacation. Paris, to be exact. Literally across the street from the Louvre, to be more exact. Here are a few key things I've noticed about France, in no real order. Continue reading→
Bad Economic Models for Entertainment
I bought Bruce Springsteen’s roots/folk/New Orleans jazz album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions a couple of weeks ago. I unwrapped it in the car, popped it into the CD player, and enjoyed it full blast all the way up to Baltimore and back. A couple days later, the CD made its way to my computer, where all my music ends up. But Sony chose to release We Shall Overcome as a DualDisc (one side... Continue reading→
Book-Geekity Fun with LibraryThing
I love snooping at other people’s libraries. Whenever I’m at someone’s house, you’ll usually find me with my head tilted to one side reading book jacket spines within the first ten minutes of walking in the door. I’ve been known to walk through IKEA paying much more attention to the books on the shelves than to the shelves themselves. So imagine my excitement when I discovered LibraryThing. LibraryThing is basically a connected online database of... Continue reading→
Web Hosting Companies That Suck
Web hosting companies have a reputation for service that ranks right up there with the cable and phone companies. In other words, execrable. This is one case where the reputation is in line with reality. Web hosting companies, on the whole, suck. One can feel some sympathy for the people running a web hosting business; it’s not an easy thing to do. You’ve got to keep web servers up and running over 99% of the... Continue reading→