What's the Word Now?

Once again, I'm explaining my reactions to the Hugo Awards nominees. It's a ranked vote; sometimes I'm voting in a preferential ...

This year, instead of writing one massive post about all the 2014  Hugo Award nominees, I'm going to write a few smaller pieces. Partly...

A friend of mine reposted the usual Memorial Day image of a uniform with the text that starts off "It is the soldier, not the reporter,...

The Hugo Awards are fan-voted recognitions of the best writing, art, and related work in science fiction. As a member of LoneStarCon3, the 7...

I watched the premiere of "Sleepy Hollow" (LOOSELY based on Washington Irving's story) on Monday and found it entertaining en...

I read Mary Robinette Kowal 's debut novel, "Shades of Milk and Honey," a few years ago when it came out. It's a novel of ...

I just submitted my Hugo ballot, a few minutes before voting closed at midnight CDT on July 31. Because I got my Worldcon membership just tw...

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm swamped with reading Hugo nominees, so I'm too busy to write original material right now. Instead, I...

I had a wonderful, although short, vacation with my family last week. Now I am snowed under again. This time the duty is reading for pleasur...

I was telling my sister about Kings in Disguise , a fine graphic novel that follows a boy as he rides the rails during the Great Depression,...

"Tie a string around your finger." This is an old-fashioned memory prompt from before when memos started arriving via PDAs, compu...

I was in a meeting Tuesday and the guy next to me stumbled over his words, saying something would "compale -- I mean, pale in compariso...

Now that "Iron Man 3" is out, I can finally admit that I was an extra! They made us sign fierce nondisclosure agreements, s...

As promised, here is Part 2 of my description of working as an extra for the untitled medical drama pilot produced by John Wells in 2010. I ...

So many ideas, so little time to write them up. I'm still working on balancing my job and everything else. Meanwhile, I'm resurrect...

A recent newspaper had a one-panel cartoon, with one woman talking to another over drinks. She was saying, "My ex and I were incompatib...

I just went to a discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" at my local library. This was part of a year of events...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I need to remind myself that not every message here has to be a long essay. In that spir...

It's always an education to play word games with my friends and relatives. Words are a big part of my job, but I often lose Scrabble to ...

There was a design/copy editor so sharp, hardly anything fretted her. Her demeanor was placid, but her wit could be acid, and she pounce...