Karen Traviss's Blog

I think this is very spiffy. Tea grown in the UK.  Yes, I've ordered some. 

 

 

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

Sad news for those of you who remember the Falklands war; Sam Salt has passed away.  A lovely guy. Rest in peace, sir.

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

Folks, you are absolute sweethearts. You always have been, right from the first book; no writer could wish for better, kinder readers. But I think you give me too much credit for something. I don't like to be seen as something I'm not. Like Cromwell*, I prefer to be painted "warts and all."

It's clear from the mail I'm getting after yesterday's entry that many of you think this is some noble act of creative martyrdom. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it just isn't. I tried to walk you...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

I'm an old journo, as you almost certainly know by now, and like any good journo (there are such animals, honest) I prefer to be proactive, not reactive.

But today I'm reacting, because somebody blurted out something on a forum, and the rumours started. Yes, for once a rumour is actually true; I've withdrawn from the sequel to Imperial Commando 501st, which was going to be my final Star Wars novel. I had issues over contractual matters and working practices that still showed no signs o...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

I have, as they say in submarine circles, gone deep. Even friends I usually manage to stay in contact with are asking if I've been forced to skip the country to escape some unfortunate business misunderstanding with the Pirhana Brothers.

While that would be a stunningly good story, it's more a case of chop-chop-busy-busy-work-work-bang-bang*. The Job has branched off on one of those forks in the road that lead you to unexpected oases, and I'm at the immersive, caffeine-fuelled...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

A question for the liberals and anti-racists who are baying for blood and bans after Nick "even less charismatic than Hitler" Griffin was allowed to appear on the BBC's question time last night: where have you been living since Labour came to power? Mars? Because that's the only explanation I can come up with for your handing the government yet another excuse to further regulate what we can see, do, and think.

You've been the first - rightly - to object to NuLabour bringing in laws to...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

This story made my day. I don't watch soaps or teen dramas (you had to ask?) and I had no idea who this woman was, but now I do know what's she made of.  Bless her. Let's give her the Royal Navy's traditional toast for a Friday: "A willing soul and sea room."

An actress who played Suzanne "Sooz" Lee in the Channel 4 teen drama As If has signed up to join the Royal Navy.

I found this quote from her really heartening in an age of self-obsessed, junk-people, Z-list celebs: "I've always l...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

Every time we lose one of our boys in Afghanistan, many of us  - most, I'd hope - feel personally affected.  Our latest British casualty, though, hit a bit harder because I remembered the name from a couple of years ago: Sergeant Michael Lockett.

Take a look at the dedication page of ASPHO FIELDS, and you'll see that I dedicated the book to the 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment. Sometimes I dedicate books to people I know personally, and sometimes to people I don't know at all but who I...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

The Daily Mash spoofs are almost always more incisive reporting than the real news stories they pillory, but today the Mash boys have surpassed themselves:

GUARDIAN readers are gathering in North London this weekend for the first Dan Brown charity sneerathon since 2003.

I particularly loved the comment on what novels should be: "Novels should be a series of stilted conversations and semi-internalised dream sequences that reveal a series of interwoven themes about...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »

This has got to be the niftiest bargain gadget ever for those of us who didn't get a tablet laptop the first time around. I loved it so much that I bought two, one for the desk and one for the netbook.

really does what it says on the box. 

It's also half the price of its competitors, as far as I can tell. (I got mine from Expansys.)   Now, I really do have a specific business use for a digital ink; I need to sign documents, annotate images, and mark up PDFs ...

View full post on Karen Traviss's website »