Decline and fall

'World to end on Monday. Women and minorities most affected.' Anyone ever worked this one out: besides that it is the reliable Grauniad headline... this time too? It only works, of course, if the men aren't there. And, oddly, that is the case in this 'writer income ' Graun piece too. But let me explain.... Continue Reading →

Prometheus

As a monkey, the idea of a trickster and mischief-maker, who none-the-less is the champion of mankind, stealing fire from the gods for them, has always been something of a beau ideal and role model for me. I am not very large or powerful, and my only tool is ingenuity against various gods. While I... Continue Reading →

Books as a propaganda medium

I recently came across a series of tweets by Sergej Sumlenny, discussing how Russia had used books, as well as other entertainment media, to prepare its citizens for war in general, prior to its invasion of Ukraine.  Here's an excerpt from Threadreader's aggregation of the tweets. Let's start a long thread about how Russian book... Continue Reading →

FenCon

I will be at FenCon this year, September 16-18 2022, in Irving Texas. Very much looking forward to it. I recommend it to anyone who'll be in range. I've got a booth, along with the rest of the North Texas Troublemakers, and we'll be selling books and other merch. Come by and say Hi! I... Continue Reading →

Sometimes the jokes write themselves…

I missed this article when it was published last December, but it came up during an Internet discussion this week: Is Superman Circumcised? wins Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year I did a double-take when I saw it, and looked it up to confirm what seemed an impossibly weird headline.  Sure enough,... Continue Reading →

Censorship rears its ugly head again

It seems that anti-Semitic prejudice is impacting the publishing world, particularly in Europe, but here in the USA as well. The publishing world today is extremely woke. And woke-approved manuscripts on Jewish themes must now pass a simple purity test: Thou shalt not portray Israel or Zionism in a positive light. American novelist and former... Continue Reading →

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