March Books
Oh good gracious, three months in a row? Here’s a look at some things I read in March! I want to talk about The City & The City by China Miéville first, not because I read it first, but because it absolutely knocked my socks off forever. I’ve only read one other Miéville (Perdido Street […]
Waffles
Growing up, I had the great luck to spend many summers at Island Lake. Then, it was a small place tucked away from the rest of the busy world. From the lake shore, you could see other houses peeking between the trees, and occasionally there would be fishing boats; some afternoons, my cousins and I […]
Under the Influence
This morning, I asked on Twitter: Are you a guy? Are you a writer? Tell me at least one woman who has influenced your writing. — E. Catherine Tobler (@ECthetwit) March 20, 2015 And you may be wondering, why am I asking about women who have influenced men who are writers? I regularly see men […]
February Books
Hey, look! It’s another month and another look at some things I read! Astounding! February was largely hit or miss for me — the plan was to read a bunch of kissing books, but when the first one I found made me roll my eyes across the room, I kind of stumbled (being eyeless and […]
Spring and By Summer Fall
Covers for new projects have been popping up all over, not unlike the way the tulips and lilies are beginning to come up here — which is foolish, given our snowy springs. They never learn, so will poke through the snow drifts year after year. “Vast Wings Across Felonious Skies” will be in The Mammoth […]
Invitations
Being invited to contribute to awesome projects still feels new to me. This year, we’re also filling in another square on that writerly BINGO card: first professional collaboration. It started like this: Joe Pulver asked me to contribute a story to Cassilda’s Song, a King in Yellow anthology that would be written by women. There […]
January Books
Reading, he says, is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, […]
The Sea Half-Held
I am he that walks with the tender and growing night; I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night. Press close bare-bosomed night! Press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! Night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! Mad naked summer night! Those lines are from Leaves of Grass, […]
Best of 2014
I don’t usually do best of lists, because…well, many reasons. But this turned into something of a project over the course of the year, a thing I devoted myself to beyond all boundaries, seeking the most distant stores to acquire that which was not close to hand. Thus, I present you with this list: […]
Reading 2014
I read a lot in 2014. Some books I loved, some books I hated; there were only two I did not finish. I finished 70 books, if this list I keep is to be believed, and we’ll believe it, sure, because it’s in black and white and black and white is comforting, it reassures us […]