A long time ago, my medieval studies professor said to me: “So, what are you interested in? What subject do you see yourself spending the rest of your life learning more about?” “…I’m not sure,” I told her. I want to be a novelist, I wanted to say. “I ask because you’re going to have […]
I have successfully defended my second master’s thesis. Read More »
In a rare coincidence, two pieces of mine are up at SF Signal and Tor.com, respectively. Thanks to Paul and Bridget, the editors, for allowing me to rant at my leisure. The first is a piece on how to raise stakes for characters in post-Singularity or post-Scarcity novels. Snip: I belong to a genre writing
Today is a good day for finger-wagging. Read More »
While I was in Seattle recently (scroll down for photos in the navbar to your right), my friend Jerry took me to lunch at the Wild Wheat Bakery Café & Restaurant in the south end. (I ate a delightful salmon tostada salad, then walked out with a squishably soft loaf of garlic rosemary bread and
How we workshop fiction Read More »
Today I had lunch at Yuzu with a friend from my Strategic Foresight & Innovation program. (I ate about half of a giant, fabulous bowl of hwaedupbap.) We were discussing our design theses. You see, in between polishing my novel and writing a study on the future of media, I’m also working on my second
The Old–>New Contract Read More »
It’s the Fourth of July, which means that although today is a work day in Canada, I have to take time to watch Jaws. There is nothing about Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller that is particularly patriotic, but much of the plot’s significant action takes place during or sometime close to July 4. And since I
I love “Jaws” so much I could eat it alive. Read More »
I couldn’t sleep, so in between catching up on some anime I hit Twitter. And what did I find there? My pals hashing the hell out of #YASaves, a hashtag directed squarely at none other than the Wall Street Journal, in response to this piece by Meghan Cox Gurdon. Snip: Pathologies that went undescribed in
Why you should never “review” a genre Read More »
Maybe you missed it, but New York Times writer Ginia Bellafante just insulted about half of HBO’s new audience share. It took place during a review (and I use that term loosely, here) of HBO’s new series Game of Thrones, adapted from George R. R. Martin’s exceedingly popular Song of Ice and Fire series of
Why the New York Times should give me Ginia Bellafante’s job: Read More »
Apparently, Roger Ebert and William Gibson have discovered that Japan has a thing for surgical masks. This is true. Japan does have a thing for surgical masks. They are worn as protection from both allergens and airborne illnesses. They’re available in most every convenience store, at a variety of price points. (Here are some examples
“What’s wrong with your faaaace?” Read More »
A friend linked me to this stunning gallery of photos at the Guardian of Detroit, in ruins. As noted in the margins, large swathes of Detroit now more closely resemble the set of a post-apocalyptic film than they do an actual city. Aged and beautiful buildings have been left to rot. Even the books are
A rapist in every Jefferies tube: Detroit, design, and our dreams of space Read More »
One of the reasons I haven’t blogged very much recently is that I’ve been so damn busy. I went away for a while to a lake up north, where I worked on the story in this subject heading as well as a couple of others (I even did some foresighting work, if you can believe