Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 282

Buku

After our local food critic awarded four and a half stars (of five) to Buku, we knew we had to eat there. After having no chance to go there for well over a month, on Saturday night we finally made it to this downtown Raleigh hot spot.

We'll be going back.

The restaurant's theme is brilliant in its flexibility: global street food. Chef William D'Auvray offers a menu that draws from many parts of the world. We sampled small plates with traditional dishes from such countries as the Philli...

Four weeks from right now

I will be getting out of the shower after having scrubbed all the gunpowder residue from my skin. No, I won't have committed a crime or gone to war; I'll have helped launch the better part of a ton of fireworks into the sky for our annual Fourth of July celebration.

If you live in this area, or if you plan to be here that Sunday, drop me a line via the form on the site, and we can probably arrange for you to be at the party. For this particular event, the general rule is, the more, the merri...

Look what just arrived

Yesterday's mail brought my author copies of Jump Gate Twist, which with the paperback of Overthrowing Heaven (available now from your favorite bookseller) here decorates the top of a bookshelf in our upstairs hallway. Though I am far from unbiased, I have to strongly recommend you pick up both books. After all, you don't want to loan your hardback copy of OH, do you?

I didn't think so.

Jump Gate Twist is, as I've blogged previously, chock full of goodies. Sarah, who had not read any of ...

What you can do to help?

As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, the second most common question I received was, "What can I do to help?" Before I answer it with some ideas, I need to clarify that it's really two separate questions: what can you do to help with my particular campaign, and what can you do to help with the greater issue.

I'll focus on the former for most of this post, so let me address the broader question first: Get involved. Learn more. Start conversations. Donate money to my Falling Whistles partne...

Just how much money could we raise to help children in war?

After reading my post yesterday, a few folks have danced around this question, but no one has been impolite enough to ask it directly. I want all the information out in the open, however, so I'm going to show you the math. I don't think I'll upset Publisher Toni or anyone else by revealing the basic hardback royalty terms I have, because they are pretty standard. With that data, we can talk about what's possible.

My royalties for this hardback, which as I said are quite standard, work as fo...

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENTBuy a book, help save a child in war

I've been teasing for a while that I had a big announcement to make. This is it. I'll start with the simplest statement of it:

I'm donating every cent I receive (including the advance) from the sale of copies of the Children No More hardcover to help rehabilitate children in the war. To that end, I'm partnering with Falling Whistles.

Now, a little background.

Back in February, on the first day of TEDActive, during a break in the sessions, I realized that I wanted to do more than just partic...

On the road again: Balticon, day 7

After much driving, including a detour that took us off I-85 for half an hour, I'm home. (My theory on the detour is that a secret government convoy was transporting an alien leader to the White House for a conference with President Obama when a terrorist group kidnapped the alien--but that's just one possibility.)

Simply settling in and dealing with the accumulated mail and so on has taken most of the evening, so I'm going to keep this short. Tomorrow, I hope to write up the big announcem...

On the road again: Balticon, day 6

This morning vanished in a blur of sleep, work, packing, and goodbyes. I then drove to the middle of nowhere, where I am now.

Well, to be more precise, I'm in Washington, VA, at The Inn at Little Washington, where I am recharging a bit, writing a bit, and soon heading to enjoy an amazing dinner in its Kitchen Table. I love this place, in large part because there is nothing to do here. (No cell phones work, though the Internet bandwidth is quite good--and comes with the room, of course.) ...

On the road again: Balticon, day 5

Morning once again arrived far too early for my taste today, but it has a way of doing that. One of these days, I'm going on a "vacation" trip that is actually a vacation; maybe this year's beach trip will fit the bill.

After scraping the drool off my chin and showering, I headed out to do the 90-minute Baen News panel. It was, as always, big fun. We showed dozens of covers, talked about upcoming books, eARCs, DRM (= bad; Baen has no truck with it), my big announcement (leaking out at the...

UFC 114: How Kyle and I fared

Kyle's in Morocco, so I had to text him the results. We did pretty well, but we did make a few very wrong calls. For the details, read on--but please understand that I'm having to report based on online summaries; I won't bet to see the fights until I'm home and have access to my DVR.

First, as always, the undercard.

Jesse Forbes vs. Ryan Jensen

We both chose Jensen, and we were both right to do so, as he submitted Forbes with a guillotine choke in the first round.

Joe Brammer vs. Aaron...