Sometime before Christmas, my darling wife went online, to the VIA Rail website. She punched in some dates, a starting point and a destination, and said “Show me the monkey!”* Then she said, “Holy crap, it’s cheaper to take the train to Edmonton than it is to fly! Even on Westjet!” So she ordered up …
I am: Jules Verne The 19th century Frenchman who made science fiction into a successful commercial genre. Which science fiction writer are you? So now I’ve been compared to Ray Bradbury, Bret Easton Ellis, and Chuck Palahniuk (only two of whom I’ve read, by the by), and Jules Verne.
Last week we were in the West. Alberta, to be precise. We boarded a train on Friday evening, and were in Edmonton Saturday morning. We rented a car, drove south to Calgary, and spent a few days visiting with my sister and her hubby. Tuesday we drove back up to Edmonton, hung out with Kathleen’s …
EDMONTON—Everytime I say “I’ve never seen Big Trouble in Little China” I get an astonished gasp from my brother-in-law or from my friend the Space Cowboy. I tell people I’ve never read Lord of the Rings* or The Hobbit and they give me that sideways look like a quizzical dog, as if to say “How …
Well, I got my problem figured out. I had to blow away my browser preferences and start fresh, but it works now. (If I’d had time and inclination, I probably could’ve used a less apocalyptic method, but, well, meh.) Also: Last night I outlined about three-quarters of the middle act (which is where my long projects …
You know how sometimes, you can look at a problem from 800 different angles, and it just won’t go away? And you just know there’s a simple solution; the problem is just picking the correct simple solution from the infinity of incorrect ones. And you know how sometimes, it’ll filter in your mind, and suddenly you’ll …
My New Year’s resolution, writing-wise, probably won’t show up here until about March, but rest assured I’ll be working on it starting tonight. I hope to start a serial story, posting “chapters” about a thousand words long, twice a week. The story (at least so far) will be one that I’ve had fermenting in my …