Administrative note
Filed Under Website
A couple of months the site moved again and e-mail got reordered. At some point I shall get around to uploading old images again using a handy-dandy Flickr photostream instead of plunking them on the server. So eventually the Broodwich, the Hello Kitty Dalek, and mutant squid will be back up for your viewing pleasure. (In the meantime, check out the wraparound cover for Triquorum III. Chris Teague found the graffiti in York.) The e-mail seems to be functioning all right; I’m down to one or two Nigerian scams a week. I did a bit of spot checking to see if there was any ham in the spam trap. Nothing leapt out at me; but if you’ve sent e-mail to the meganpowell.net address in the past few weeks and haven’t heard back from me, please drop a comment here.
A blast from the past
Filed Under Books
When Patti asked for another Forgotten Book post, she said: “The Western fans are about to run off with it.” Naturally, my first thought was to write about a western: Santiago, perhaps, or Iron Council (“It’s got cowboys in it, for fuck’s sake.”) But because the former made a sizable splash and the latter only came out a few years ago, I decided that would be cheating.
If you’d like to read about the Forgotten Book I did pick, click here.
If you’d like to read the extended Acknowledgments for Anathem, click here.
The surreal century
Filed Under Uncategorized
Antediluvian governments plan for the worst. Expect the worst. That’s the part that seems weird to me. Though I missed the Cuban Missile Crisis and duck-and-cover drills, there was still plenty of Cold War the-next-war-could-be-the-last-or-will-at-least-be-really-really-bad in the ambient when I was growing up…but there wasn’t a sense of inevitable doom. Although I guess it’s not really a sense of doom in the Maldives. It’s only limited powerlessness. The prospect of losing one’s homeland is neither the end of the story nor the inciting incident that leads to wacky adventures unrelated to what went before. Once you start talking about plans and insurance, I suppose the thing you’re planning for and insuring against becomes just another thing. Creeping banality.
Now I feel worse
Filed Under Politics
Proposition 8 was the most reprehensible of a set of reprehensible ballot initiatives. Congratulations, California. You’re even more backwards than Arkansas.
Now I feel better
Filed Under Politics
The roiling ball of anxiety is less pronounced than it has been in some time. Though I did want to strangle everyone who started calling states based on exit polls. Dammit, don’t they read political blogs, or remember recent elections?
A welcome distraction
Filed Under Writing
Chris Teague just e-mailed over the proofs for Triquorum III. So now I get to give “Trinkets” a once-over, and then I get to read the other two stories.
Voted
Filed Under Politics
At quarter after eight, I was the seventieth person to vote. No lines and no waiting in my suburban precinct with two voting machines. I parked on the street; several other cars had as well, even though the parking lot (I saw a moment later) was not entirely packed at that instant.
I have a tight ball of anxiety spinning in the vicinity of my pancreas. Must do some very important Kos reading. That’s sure to help.