About me, some stuff
I decided to read this one when a friend wanted to talk about it, without prejudicing me by indicating exactly what bits she wanted to talk about. (This is probably one of the top five ways to get me to read something. Piquing my curiosity and promising me that we’llContinue Reading
Over the weekend I made an attempt at all the Hugo nominees for short story. I actually finished two of them. They still weren’t exactly Hugo material, in my opinion, but at least they succeeded at being stories. In one of the many epic discussion threads over at the FileContinue Reading
The 1985 Fright Night has been one of my favorite vampire movies since college. I knew it was dangerous to see a remake of a movie I love-love-love, but after seeing pictures of David Tennant’s hilariously cheesy (and shirtless!) take on Peter Vincent, finding out that Marti “Buffy” Noxon wroteContinue Reading
Note: I started writing this months ago when it was new and a bunch of my horror-fan friends were rolling their eyes about it in social media. But I stopped when I didn’t have a good concluding paragraph. But since I am going to be at Crypticon next weekend (MayContinue Reading
I know, I know, you’re probably getting bored with Hugo-related content by now. There has indeed been a lot of it, with blog posts back and forth, epic comment threads, and the occasional Sad mastermind or defender popping in to explain himself. But there are a couple of sentiments thatContinue Reading
This post is about the so-called Sad and/or Rabid Puppies, and if you need background on exactly what that is, please refer to this IO9 article. In my own post, whenever I attribute motive or reasoning to Brad Torgersen, Author of Sadness, it is based on this very thorough analysis ofContinue Reading
And why should you obey your parents, girls? It’s good practice for obeying your husbands! — the minister’s wife, to a Sunday school class full of teenage girls, including me. When I wanted to write a novel playing around with the loup-garou legends of Cajun Louisiana, I started with whatContinue Reading
> Hey everyone! Waking up Naked in Strange Places, my first novel, is officially released April 2 — that’s tomorrow! I’ve been working hard trying to brainstorm ways to promote the book. If you are interested in helping me do that, I think you’ll find the methods below easy andContinue Reading
By special request — an essay ranting about Christian Rock! I first encountered Christian Rock when I was 12 years old, right in the middle of a very chaotic thirteenth year. (Yes, I just now realized that the year you are twelve is your thirteenth year. Oooooooooo! Superstitiousness!) My thirteenthContinue Reading
It comes up in this blog quite a bit that I was raised as an evangelical Protestant during the 70s and 80.1 So I was right on the front lines as end-of-the-world fever became an epidemic, and evangelical Protestantism turned into a doomsday cult. I read the Chick tracts andContinue Reading
The Internet has already had its fun with the confessional essay written by the drunken layabout husband I like to think of as flooded-with-awe dude. I felt moved to comment, but it took me a couple of weeks (roughly a million years Internet time) to figure out what I wantedContinue Reading
I’ve been struggling to articulate anything useful about the recent events that started with the Grand Jury decision not to charge Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown. Silence might make it appear that I have no opinion, and I do. In my opinion, itContinue Reading
For the first time in my life, nobody invited me to a traditional family Thanksgiving dinner. My parents went to Los Angeles to spend it with my brothers’ families, which has been their habit ever since the adorable nieces were born. Paul and I thought that surely, somebody in Paul’sContinue Reading