A couple of years ago I wrote a tale for the Heir Apparent. She was seven at the time and ardently fond of a number of things girls her age tend to be. So I attempted to incorporate several of her obsessions into the narrative. I believe I succeeded, as she was highly pleased with… Continue reading Ursula Bruin
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Currently Reading.
Happily I will never run out of reading matter. There are five books waiting in the ever-replenishing to-be-read pile. Currently I am finishing up Glen Cook’s The Dragon Never Sleeps. This is an epic, sweeping, galaxy crossing space opera of improbably massive space ships clashing, power dynamics, and the pursuit of quasi-immortality. At over 400… Continue reading Currently Reading.
Dust Off Your Fluffy Cthulhu Birthday Hat
Next week marks the 133rd birthday of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I wonder if he would be surprised at his influence. He spawned an entire sub-genre: Lovecraftian Horror. Its tentacles reach from prose to film to games to seemingly every type of collectible merchandise imaginable. I wonder if this prominence, this degree of ubiquity would tickle… Continue reading Dust Off Your Fluffy Cthulhu Birthday Hat
Tower at the Edge of Time. Not Precisely a Towering Achievement.
The indefatigable Lin Carter published a slender novel in 1968 titled Tower at the Edge of Time. I have been open in my admiration for Mr. Carter’s gifts as a scholar, editor, and stylistic imitator. I even enjoy, on occasion, his more independently innovative works. That being said…Well, let me just get into it. Tower… Continue reading Tower at the Edge of Time. Not Precisely a Towering Achievement.
Old Stomping Grounds. Part Two.
Only days remain in my stay back in Oregon. I will be returning to Casa Lizzi in Texas early Tuesday morning. I’m beginning to look forward with some eagerness to my own bed, my library, my familiar routine. Yet it has been a good trip. MBW joined me Tuesday. As per her wish (happily granted)… Continue reading Old Stomping Grounds. Part Two.
Old Stomping Grounds. Part One.
It was just over a year ago that MBW, the HA, and I began our trek from Oregon to Texas. I flew back with the HA for a visit last week. MBW will join us in a few days. Why the trip? Why not? I drove the HA south to a spot roughly halfway between… Continue reading Old Stomping Grounds. Part One.
The Web Log is Traveling.
The HA and I flew from Houston to Portland yesterday. Today I drove south about halfway across the State of Oregon and handed over the HA to her grandmother. She should enjoy a week on the Northern California coast. I drove back to my temporary headquarters where I’ll…go back to work, same as always. I… Continue reading The Web Log is Traveling.
The State of the Writer.
It seems like a good time to take stock. We’ve reached the second half 2023. Summer, in all its blistering glory is firmly in place. The fifty weeks of serializing Savage Journal are behind now. (Regarding which, I hope some of you enjoyed it.) I’m feeling settled in; it has been a bit over a… Continue reading The State of the Writer.
Robert E. Howard’s Dennis Dorgan. Plus Savage Journal Entry 50.
Dennis Dorgan, the character whose exploits are collected in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan, is definitely not Popeye the Sailor Man, despite his creation shortly after the release of E.C. Segar’s classic character in 1929. Dennis makes this perfectly clear by his stated dislike of canned spinach. Though both men are sailors, speak in… Continue reading Robert E. Howard’s Dennis Dorgan. Plus Savage Journal Entry 50.