Misanthropy, Though Not in Timon’s Manner

Yes, this post is about doing misanthropy right, because there is a right and a wrong way… at least, if you want to be a celebrated writer (and a sane human being). But the means by which I arrived at such a thought, with enough force to incite me to write a blog post, means that this will have to double as a hit-and-run book review of sorts. I’ve been listening to Leo Damrosch’s biography of Jonathan Swift, and it’s been fascinating. The secrecy with which he conducted his life, and the resulting uncertainties that surround it; his involvement in politics as an anonymous pamphleteer …

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Prodigal Published! (And More)

I was hoping to get this out earlier, but, it’s been a busy week, or, well, week and a half. I mentioned a while back that my story “Prodigal” was forthcoming in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Well, it’s in the December 2016 issue, which may or may not be on newstands already, but which subscribers have been receiving. What’s more, not only is my name on the cover, but so is the story title, and I’m guessing that’s why the art references my story too! That was a complete surprise, and a wonderful one as well. To those who’ve read it already: …

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Prodigal

My short story “Prodigal” appeared in the December 2016 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It was, in fact, honored as being the cover story , with cover art to match: the first time a story of mine was honored in this way. “Prodigal” is a story with a long history. I originally drafted it at Clarion West during the summer of 2006, essentially on a dare by my classmate Ben Burgis. Some of the scientific groundwork in this story was actually laid in a novella I wrote even farther back, in 2001, titled “With My Mouth.” (I know, I know, the …

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My First Car Accident (Er, Okay, Second)

Edit: By the light of day, I realize that what I’ve written up below was my second car accident; the first happened on the first night I went out driving with my dad, the day I received my learner’s license in Middle School. The similarities to this case are a bit surprising: it was also 100% the other guy’s fault, and it happened in an empty place. (A mall parking lot, after the mall had closed: he reversed into our car without even turning on his lights. Somehow, I spent years hearing this was my fault from my mom, in contradiction …

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Gamma Planet: Planning a Playground

So, the tabletop RPG group I’m running? We play Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but as I’ve mentioned before, D&D isn’t the only game I’ve loved. As I’ve mentioned before, one of my oldest RPG loves was the postapocalyptic RPG Gamma World: Back in junior high school, I was rather unaware of the mess that this edition actually was, and I gleefully ran a campaign using these rules with a group that transcended school cliques in a way that makes it hard for me to totally reject and mock that final scene of the series Freaks and Geeks. One of the hockey-playing tough-guys in my class ran “Sheesh,” …

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