I've been eating some burritos that are, according to the package, "Spicy Taco Picante" flavor. Which is good, because I hate the mild taco picante flavor. Now if I could just find some apple pie de manzana for dessert...

This was meant to be the beginning of a story I want to write, but it's the wrong tone. So this is the beginning of another story, that I don't have any real ideas about yet. Lance Melton's eleventh-grade painting teacher was the first to report his potentially unhealthy obsession with science. "All he wants to paint are stars and... read more »

I mailed off a submission to Analog today, a short (< 1000 words) story of a rather frivolous nature that I hope might be suitable for their Probablility Zero feature. It's called "Digest of Selected Portions of the Abbreviated Summary of the Condensed Report of the Ad Hoc Investigatory Subcommittee of the Select Committee for the Thorough Examination of Unusual-But-Widely-Publicized... read more »

I don't usually bother watching the Oscars, but I watched to see if what I hoped would happen, would happen. And it did. Eleven Oscars to "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." A clean sweep. That ties it for the record with "Ben Hur." (According to official website policy, we are ignoring another film.)

Important Issue Poll Who would win in a fight? Cavemen Astronauts view results Tonight's episode of Angel, reminded me of why it's one of the shows I'm buying on DVD as it comes out. (And why I'm very sorry this is its last season.) Tonight's episode had a very funny thread running through it, about whether cavemen or astronauts would... read more »

Beginning of a weird little story. No idea where it's going. "Pardon me, sir, but I should like to talk to you about the weather." I dipped my Daily Herald low enough that I could peer over the top at the speaker, who turned out to be a short, completely bald gentleman in an expensive-looking black double-breasted suit. It was... read more »

Being somewhat excited about my first fiction sale, I found it hard to focus on writing 13 lines, so I just took a subject from a little program I have called Musings, which has a whole bunch of writing exercises. This one was to write some dialoge with a denial. "You are a spy sent by the CIA to steal... read more »

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"Ding" is the written equivalent of the sound made in the online game EverQuest when one reaches a new level. I received a contract today from the Writers of the Future contest, which means they have decided to include my story "In Memory" in their anthology. This is my first sale, and I'm very excited about it. I guess I'm... read more »

For those to whom I've given a username and password, Chapter 15 of my novel is available here.