Neil Gaiman’s Appeal Regarding How to Celebrate Leap Year Day

( I certainly agree with the below suggestion from Neil Gaiman.  And I’m happy to let the world know that I have a wide range of tastes in food and am generally considered a polite and reasonably entertaining companion at table. The below is copied from the author’s blog. ) Please celebrate Leap Year Day [...]

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A Good Mail Day

Any day when books with my name printed on them show up in the mail is a good mail day. Today, my contributor’s copies for Future Imperfect: Best of Wily Writers 2 arrived with “Aftershocks” nestled inside. They look like this: I’ll have to check with Angel Leigh McCoy in order to find out whether that’s [...]

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Got Epitaphs?

Because we all need them eventually. On a related note, as a member of New England Horror Writers, let me draw your attention to Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers, edited by Tracy L. Carbone. It is the first anthology published by the organization and was released as a trade paperback at [...]

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Daily Double in Daily Frights 2013

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve had two flash fiction stories accepted for publication in Daily Frights 2013: 365 Days of Frightening Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press).  ”Things in the Attic” was a spontaneous bit of dark whimsy.  ”Mary” was inspired while browsing in The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters.  Both were originally published right [...]

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How Many Rejections is Too Many?

  Maybe this should have been my Valentine’s Day post…. Nah, too painful. No, I’m talking about story submissions. Every writer has to decide how many times they are willing to brave (and receive) rejection of a work (poem, flash, story, novel, etc.) before they shelve or circular file it. Lots of writers have the [...]

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Found this over here at Black Osiris.  Find a way with the one you love.  Get creative. Oh, and this is an interesting piece at NPR about the convoluted and wild origins of Valentine’s Day.

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2012 Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts

For the second year running, my family met up with friends to go see a screening of the animated short films that have been nominated for an Oscar. Last year’s crop was great. This year’s is even better. Here’s an overview in the order we saw them, with a peek at each: Sunday by Patrick [...]

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A Peek at Where I Write

There’s nothing like a deadline to motivate you to clean the bejabbers out of your house. In our case, it was hosting our first prospective buyer. We’ll be moving later this year and, while the house is not officially on the market yet, we are informally showing it to interested friends and colleagues. Because we [...]

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Another Thing eBooks Can’t Do

They can do many things.  But they can’t get up and dance around your bookshop or home library to create something beautiful. Here’s a stop-motion film set at Type books in Toronto, the sort of shop I love to haunt for hours when I can. There isn’t a single one where I currently live, sadly.

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The Animated Life of Dickens

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens.  To celebrate, here is a short, fun animated film about his life.  Reminded me that, besides needing to read (or re-read) more Dickens, I still want to go immerse myself in Dan Simmons’ Drood, Enjoy.

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