Nick Mamatas's Blog, page 41
January 21, 2014
January 20, 2014
Monday Quick Notes
It's MLK Day, so I am home from work, but Olivia isn't. So I am watching Taki by myself. See?
Speaking of baby pictures, I have an event this week.
Some come on out! There may be Brazilian steakhouse afterward!
In other news, I sat through and livetweeted the Flowers in the Attic TV movie. Shitty!
As I predicted a while ago, N17 is making a comeback. I just hope they shoot Golden Dawn members. Anyway, In his statement, Xeros pledges that the “rebel’s rifle will resound again.” “We want rights and we will gain them while holding weapons in our hands,” added Xeros, who spoke with photos of Che Guevara, Communist World War II resistance fighter Aris Velouchiotis and Greek independence fighters Theodoros Kolokotronis and Georgios Karaiskakis in the background.
More later! Baby's stirring...
Speaking of baby pictures, I have an event this week.
The Green Arcade
Wednesday, January 22, 7pm
Nick Mamatas, author of Love is the Law
Jarett Kobek, author of BTW
In 1989, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, history ended.
In 2001, with the destruction of the World Trade Center, history began again.
In 2014, two guys talk about their books. One is a crime novel about 1989; one is a bildungsroman about 2001.
BTW, Love is the Law: The two books together sound like a sentence and a reminder of what is important, no matter what happens to history next.
Some come on out! There may be Brazilian steakhouse afterward!
In other news, I sat through and livetweeted the Flowers in the Attic TV movie. Shitty!
As I predicted a while ago, N17 is making a comeback. I just hope they shoot Golden Dawn members. Anyway, In his statement, Xeros pledges that the “rebel’s rifle will resound again.” “We want rights and we will gain them while holding weapons in our hands,” added Xeros, who spoke with photos of Che Guevara, Communist World War II resistance fighter Aris Velouchiotis and Greek independence fighters Theodoros Kolokotronis and Georgios Karaiskakis in the background.
More later! Baby's stirring...
January 15, 2014
What's Up?
Not too much. I sold a couple of stories—one a flash piece to a pornography anthology, one an overdue bit of Lovecraftian horror. I finished my column for the resurrected magazine Flytrap as well. It was interesting to go back and look at what I wrote for the first volume of the magazine, and I've decided to turn over a new leaf. No more columns about publishing, no more advice. There's nothing interesting to say anymore—it's all just service journalism about formatting manuscripts and pricing schemes for one's Kindle books. The new "Life Among the Obliterati" will be about reading and writing, not publication.
Baby's okay, though he needed another session under the laser for his gums. Only ninety bucks that time. He's a cute kid, and mellow, but mostly I just dread having to listen to prattle about video games in six or seven years. I liked comic books when I was a little kid, but I never bothered my parents by explaining the plots to them over and over. He'll probably want me to play videogames with him. Is this the sort of thing one must do and pretend to enjoy?
Still sick too, but much less so. I can almost manage going to the gym. Doctor tomorrow, and as these things go I should be perfectly fine.
The world continues to be horrifying. One old saw radicals often hear is that when they settle down and have kids, they will want stability and will naturally grow more conservative. This is yet another of those old saws that bounced right off me. I just want the kid to be big enough to push in a normal stroller so we can hit the streets. If anything, radicalism will be the source of any future stability he (or anyone) might enjoy. It's more a case of where to begin than anything else.
Have you checked out the latest issue of The Big Click? You should! Also in the crime world is the anthology Schemers (Robin Laws, ed.). I've not received my contributor copy yet, but it's on sale at bn.com and amazon. It includes my story of performance art crime, "If Graffiti Changed Anything, It Would Be Illegal."
Baby's okay, though he needed another session under the laser for his gums. Only ninety bucks that time. He's a cute kid, and mellow, but mostly I just dread having to listen to prattle about video games in six or seven years. I liked comic books when I was a little kid, but I never bothered my parents by explaining the plots to them over and over. He'll probably want me to play videogames with him. Is this the sort of thing one must do and pretend to enjoy?
Still sick too, but much less so. I can almost manage going to the gym. Doctor tomorrow, and as these things go I should be perfectly fine.
The world continues to be horrifying. One old saw radicals often hear is that when they settle down and have kids, they will want stability and will naturally grow more conservative. This is yet another of those old saws that bounced right off me. I just want the kid to be big enough to push in a normal stroller so we can hit the streets. If anything, radicalism will be the source of any future stability he (or anyone) might enjoy. It's more a case of where to begin than anything else.
Have you checked out the latest issue of The Big Click? You should! Also in the crime world is the anthology Schemers (Robin Laws, ed.). I've not received my contributor copy yet, but it's on sale at bn.com and amazon. It includes my story of performance art crime, "If Graffiti Changed Anything, It Would Be Illegal."
January 10, 2014
Friday Quick Notes
First up, big news! Self-Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe is a Philip K. Dick Award nominee! If you ever grumped about how most SF these days is just either a military adventure story or just fantasy with rayguns instead of spells, then you owe it to yourself to get a copy. And you owe it to me to get nine other copies and distribute them to strangers.
No other real news except that the baby is adorable, and I am suffering from a mix of allergies, asthma symptoms, and cold symptoms and have been since journeying East, where I did stupid things like shovel snow in four-degree weather, and then ride on a ferry across the Long Island Sound. I'm actually going to the doctor next week, which is highly unusual for me.
No other real news except that the baby is adorable, and I am suffering from a mix of allergies, asthma symptoms, and cold symptoms and have been since journeying East, where I did stupid things like shovel snow in four-degree weather, and then ride on a ferry across the Long Island Sound. I'm actually going to the doctor next week, which is highly unusual for me.
January 7, 2014
Full Babyism: a new userpic
For posts about my son, natch.
Quote of the Day
"For one, Beach's U.S. distribution model was a single book at a time and depended on a man wearing very large pants."
—
—
From "Printers, Bookleggers, and 'Spicy' Books: James Joyce in the Book Industry", by Patrick Coleman. The Writer's Chronicle V. 46, no. 4, February 2014.
Merry Christmas!
Copts, in the house!
Serbs are in the house!
Antioch is in the house!
Russians in the house!
Paleoimerologites, all over the house!
Serbs are in the house!
Antioch is in the house!
Russians in the house!
Paleoimerologites, all over the house!
January 1, 2014
What year is it?
This might have fit for last year as well, but I do have diapers on my mind these days, so I suspect this will be the year of...
People shitting themselves in public. Maybe metaphorically, on Twitter. Or literally, on a street corner or in mass transit. But each of you reading this will either shit yourself in public somehow, or be hit with the splatter.
Other than that, have a good 2014!
People shitting themselves in public. Maybe metaphorically, on Twitter. Or literally, on a street corner or in mass transit. But each of you reading this will either shit yourself in public somehow, or be hit with the splatter.
Other than that, have a good 2014!
December 31, 2013
Strong Island
Here is a picture of my son with his great-great-great aunt Venus. She is my great-grandmother's sister:
Yup, I'm writing from that Long Island enclave of Ikarian blue-zoners. I got here a few days ago, just after Christmas. I had two weeks of bachelorhood as Big O and Little O went East before me. So, bed in the living room, music 24/7, five different versions of A Christmas Carol (most of which I loved*) in one night on TCM, a completed short story and a pitched, researched, and finished essay, lots of eating out and kettlebells, a return to jujitsu class and all that other fun stuff. But now we're back together having different kinds of fun, though I'll be up in Danbury teaching a workshop and giving a talk and a reading for two days before heading back to California.
Baby's much improved, well over nine pounds. He has charmed all his relations. New Year's Eve is feeding him, while doing some work for Team Rocket from afar. I still have to write my talk, which is about self-publishing. I have the sneaking feeling many of the students in attendance are hoping for the secret to making a million bucks doing just that. Dare I simply get up on stage, say the words "Bigfoot Porn" and then step down? Stay tuned for more adventures in 2014!
*And thanks to Turner Classics, I finally found a version I didn't like. A Carol for Another Christmas is basically a paean to liberal imperialism, and as the visits from the ghosts don't closely relate to the protagonist's own past experiences the whole thing feels like an extended finger-wag. Nor is there much Christmas Morning joy to be had in a conversion to...being in favor of the United Nations. Easily the worst thing Rod Serling ever wrote that actually made it to the screen.
Yup, I'm writing from that Long Island enclave of Ikarian blue-zoners. I got here a few days ago, just after Christmas. I had two weeks of bachelorhood as Big O and Little O went East before me. So, bed in the living room, music 24/7, five different versions of A Christmas Carol (most of which I loved*) in one night on TCM, a completed short story and a pitched, researched, and finished essay, lots of eating out and kettlebells, a return to jujitsu class and all that other fun stuff. But now we're back together having different kinds of fun, though I'll be up in Danbury teaching a workshop and giving a talk and a reading for two days before heading back to California.
Baby's much improved, well over nine pounds. He has charmed all his relations. New Year's Eve is feeding him, while doing some work for Team Rocket from afar. I still have to write my talk, which is about self-publishing. I have the sneaking feeling many of the students in attendance are hoping for the secret to making a million bucks doing just that. Dare I simply get up on stage, say the words "Bigfoot Porn" and then step down? Stay tuned for more adventures in 2014!
*And thanks to Turner Classics, I finally found a version I didn't like. A Carol for Another Christmas is basically a paean to liberal imperialism, and as the visits from the ghosts don't closely relate to the protagonist's own past experiences the whole thing feels like an extended finger-wag. Nor is there much Christmas Morning joy to be had in a conversion to...being in favor of the United Nations. Easily the worst thing Rod Serling ever wrote that actually made it to the screen.
December 25, 2013
Nick Mamatas's Blog
- Nick Mamatas's profile
- 244 followers
Nick Mamatas isn't a Goodreads Author
(yet),
but they
do have a blog,
so here are some recent posts imported from
their feed.
