Steven Brust: “A masterful storyteller of contagious glee and self-deprecating badassery” —Skyler White
I have no idea if this will be at all interesting to anyone, but I just wrote a chapter that gives me an excellent opportunity to talk about my process. I should note that this book, Chreotha, is episodic (at least so far). That means that, a) the process of creating this chapter is nicely Continue reading A Long and Probably Boring Process Post
Jules Part of, and apart from: that was me during the Uprising of 243-244. In one sense, I was in the thick of it: I was there when we came within a teckla s squeal of a massacre, and maybe I even had a hand in stopping it. But in another sense, I never felt like Continue reading Jules: A Chapter of Chreotha
Sometime in the late 1970s, my wife and I attended a meeting of the Minnesota Science Fiction Society. This was in the early days of table top role playing games, and in Minneapolis, or at least among those of us in Minn-Stf, these were nearly always homebrew systems indeed, I confess some of us got a Continue reading Reflections
Never during my lifetime has the question But what can I do? been so fraught, and resulted in so much disorientation. Not long ago, some people were passing around a petition suggesting we boycott Zionist authors (in fact, many were Jewish but had no connection to Zionism) in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Continue reading But What Can *I* Do?
A reminder that Narrativity 2025 is coming in June, June 26th to be exact, and pre-registration is open. A small, craft-oriented convention for story held in Plymouth, Minnesota. I hope to see some of you there. Welcome to Narrativity
Delta Airlines is evil and I will never forgive them. I don t hate them for the flight to Santa Marta I missed: That was entirely my fault. Not for the suitcase that went astray after panicking because I d missed my flight, my mistakes started piling up, so that, too, was my fault. And not because of Continue reading I Will Never Forgive Delta Airlines
This is a term I ve heard often, as one of the goals of art, without really understanding it. I think I ve figured out at least some of it now. Stay with me. I think I was 22 or so when my daughter, Carolyn, became seriously ill (and thank you Dr. Edlavitch!). My wife and I Continue reading Generalized Human Experience
The 1872 presidential election (Ulysses Grant vs Horace Greeley) represented the last time progressive change was brought about through a national election. Since then, progressive change has either been forced by mass action (Women s suffrage, Welfare, Social Security, Unemployment insurance, Civil Rights, Gay rights, c) or been a small part of a bill the bulk Continue reading A Brief Note on the…
In the late 60s and early 70s there was an epidemic of everything I hate is fascism. We seem to be back to that again. But there are differences, and they are important. We warned then, and it is worth repeating now, that we use a narrow and precise definition of fascism because it is Continue reading On Fascism Things Are Different Now
If you strip away the rhetorical flourishes, here is what we are told every day: 1) If you aren t Jewish, you may not disagree when I say something is antisemitic. 2) Any objection to the genocide being carried out against Palestinians is antisemitic. If you disagree, see 1). 3) Therefore, you must either admit to Continue reading Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Political Action
Once upon a time a man named Barry Goldwater appeared on the political scene. And the radical cried, Danger! A fascist! And the people came running, but they saw that, actually, he was just a right-wing authoritarian, and he was making no effort to build a mass movement based on violence and terror in order Continue reading A Totally Original Parable Not Derived From Anything Else Really
It s the day of international working class solidarity, so a few quick answers to some things I ve been hearing. 1) No serious revolutionist has ever wanted to make things worse in order to incite revolution. Utter rubbish. Especially now; things are quite bad enough. What s missing is consciousness that there is a way forward, a Continue reading May Day Post
Someone on Twitter said she was stuck on her current project and asked for suggestions for getting unstuck. I started to reply, then realized it would turn into a huge thread. So, here I am. Note: as I understand it, stuck on current project is not the same phenomenon as writer s block. The former Continue reading When writers get stuck
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Continue reading Lyorn Discussion Major Spoilers
(I ll be adding this to my socialism FAQ, but for now I think it deserves it s own post.) The logic here is what fascinates the mechanical formality, starting with rigid definitions and proceeding step by careful step to absurdity. The old scholastics of the middle ages would certainly have approved, but if we don t want to Continue reading We live in a democracy, therefore the government…
A place to discuss Tsalmoth for those who have read it. [Note: WordPress seems to have been randomly marking things as Spam. If your comment didn t appear, that s why. I think I ve now recovered them all, and they should be up. Sorry I didn t get to it sooner.]
Let s talk about art and commerce. To get the obvious stuff out of the way, first, I am using here a very broad definition of art, so we can simply skip the arguments about what is and isn t art. Second, those of you who want to make Garfunkle jokes, or any of the other oh-so-original Continue reading On Art and Commerce and Pseudo-Activism
Among the most engaging passages in Trotsky s History of the Russian Revolution are those dealing with the weeks and days leading up to the October insurrection, when the Petrograd Soviet, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, began pushing. That is, they gradually took for the Soviet more and more power from the Provisional Government, waiting at Continue reading Creeping Fascism
All science is social science, because the development of knowledge of the laws of nature take place within society, are subject to the limitations of resources produced by society, and in turn have an effect on society. As capitalism was clawing it s bloody way toward world dominance, it brought with it a remarkable boom in Continue reading All Science is Social Science