• My Life

    Still Here

    Before anybody connects my silence here with anything nefarious I’d just like to mention that I am in the process of a move. So if I’m late replying to email, tweets, or mindlinks, please bear with me. This is going to be a prolonged move so expected prolonged disruption to this blog. If anything is urgent please just SHOUT really loud and I’ll try to get to it soon’ish. Thanks!

  • Brent's Toys

    Latest Toy: AT-AT

    So this is what my 6yr old recently bought. Pretty cool, eh? He saved up for it for quite a while but unfortunately it was sold out by the time he had the cash. Luckily my wife phoned around, found one on the other side of the country and had it shipped here. I had an AT-AT when I was a kid but this version would eat that one for lunch.

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read this month

    Yesterday I wrote a bit about not writing reviews anymore. But I still definitely want to hightlight *what* I am reading and since I’m busy packing up books right now I figured I should mention some work I’ve recently read before it disappears into a cardboard void. I had a backlog of unread On Spec Magazine issues but I’m now caught up, having read On Spec #84, #85, #86, and #87. Some fantastic stories in these. I think issue #85 in particular may have just become my favorite On Spec issue, at least in the past few years. Though I am also partial to #87 since I have a story…

  • Writing Resources

    Why I Seldom Write Reviews

    Long time readers may have noticed that I used to write reviews somewhat regularly on this site but that I seldom do so anymore. It is not because I’m a lazy bastard. Basically I’ve received a lot of advice (in regards to writing reviews), from the workshops at the Writers of the Future event to more private correspondence and all of it basically suggests that reviewing other writers will only lead to hurt feelings and worse, possibly damaged professional relationships down the road. A writer might be pissed off at a negative review, or that writer’s agent, or that writer’s publisher. So I don’t write many reviews. Of course every…

  • Game Reviews

    Mass Effect 3 and Day-One DLC

    So a few of you involved in the gaming community are probably aware of some flack BioWare was (is?) getting for releasing day one DLC for Mass Effect 3. For those who are not familiar with gamer lingo this basically means that there was add-on content available for Mass Effect 3 the moment it was released… for which players had to pay extra. This annoyed some people. There’s a decent summary over here along with some user comments if you want more exposure to the incident as it happened. I’ve had a few readers ask me my thoughts on this and given that I’ve finally found a few moments between…

  • Writing Resources

    ‘Touch the Dead’ now available

    My latest story is now available! ‘Touch the Dead’ appears in On Spec #87 (Winter 2011/2012) issue. This is my third story to be published in On Spec. The best way to read the story is to get a subscription to the magazine. I believe you can also order single issues of the magazine instead… and there is a digital subscription option too. Lois Tilton from Locus has already put up a favorable review: While riding with his girlfriend, driving too fast, a ghostly encounter runs him off the road… Brian is haunted everywhere by hostile ghosts. Read the entire review. ‘Touch the Dead’ is also set in the same…

  • Writing Resources

    Story Submission Day (whew!)

    Today I sent out just over ten stories, some new, some that had been rejected over the past week or so. As I hinted at in the previous post we’ve been preparing for a house move (a new property has been bought — the move has not happened yet). So I haven’t had time to spend sending stories out… what free time I’ve had has been devoted to writing new material. Anyways at times like this I do wonder at the sheer expense in time needed to send out the stories! A couple hours last night to plan where they should go (making sure markets are still open and are…