Boys, manga, and guns: an afternoon at the library
I mentioned in my previous post, I spent part of the week before last doing appearances at two Toronto public libraries. My first afternoon out, I spoke with a couple of classes of fifth graders about being a writer, and more importantly, being a reader. I talked about all the books that had ever gotten [...]
Inevitable Birthday Post: 30
This morning after Dave left the house, my mom and dad called to wish me a happy birthday. While I was talking with Dad, he mentioned bragging about me to a colleague at ISC West, the annual security conference he visits in Vegas. Vegas has featured prominently in my dad’s professional history; it’s a big [...]
Escape from LA: the rest of the story
Does anyone else remember The Rest of the Story, radio personality Paul Harvey’s daily syndicated segment? It started in 1976 as a collaboration between Harvey and his son, who wrote all the bits. They were a trifle over-wrought, but Harvey’s voice had a way of making them seem colloquial, like he was a neighbour relaying [...]
My SFContario schedule:
It’s that time again: time for Toronto’s SF crowd to join together in the avoidance of solicitation and the enjoyment of alienation. SFContario is this weekend, November 9-12. Barring any last-minute changes, this is my schedule.
An update, and some thoughts on pessimism.
There are a lot of titles I could have gone with, here. LA Story. LA Confidential. Down And Out in the Magic Kingdom. Postcards from the Edge. American Idiot. But nothing I can think of really fits. I’m still stuck in the United States. I’m staying with my former roommate from my Seattle years, and [...]
The way out is through: on being stranded in America
I just spent the past few days at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, talking about what it means to do science fiction prototyping, and promoting The Tomorrow Project: Imagining the Future and Building It. I’m really proud of my story, “Photographic Memory,” and I’m proud of the panels I did while in San [...]
My last-minute Worldcon schedule
That’s right, folks, I’m in Chicago. It’s beautiful. Stunning, really. Today involved deep-dish pizza with my editor and fellow Angry Robot authors, jaw-dropping architecture, fireworks, and an absurdly huge bed. I’m here by the grace of the folks at the Intel Developer Forum, whose surprise prodding got me to renew my permanent residency faster than [...]
The Toronto Hackerspace Adventure Tour, 16 June
A while back, I gave a talk at the BorderTown Design Jam. It was held at ThingTank Lab, but most of the Border Town seminars I participated in last year were held at Site 3 CoLaboratory. The first evening of the jam, Alex Leitch (founder of Site 3) and I got to talking about all [...]
Bits and pieces
It’s been a crazy week. I wrapped up some stories for a client, snagged another contract, and ate delicious cake at a belated birthday celebration. (My birthday was last week. I turned 29.) Oh, and did my taxes. On time. Like a 29-year-old. I was also interviewed at Civilian Reader regarding vN. What’s something readers [...]
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