Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 49

The Fermi Irritation

(I meant to upload this and thought I had. But I didn’t. Oh, well. Sorry.)

I’m on my way home from work and I’m in a bad mood. So, I’m going to talk about something that regularly irritates me.

LikePap in Huckleberry Finn, “Whenever his liquor begun to work he most always went for the govment.” I go for theFermi Paradox.

Enrico Fermicame up with it. Essentially, it says: the universe is unimaginably old. We arose. If we’re typical, surely in all that time some other intelligent race has, too. Wh...

Truth and Fiction

Though he’s talking about a television show, David Simon has interesting observations about how much truth and fiction overlap.

When I saw that link, the first thing it reminded me of was reading a biography of Jennie Churchill, and realizing how much of Edith Wharton’s fiction arose out of her experience, so muchso that readers recognized specific American “buccaneers” (wealthy New York socialites who went to England looking for titled husbands) in her fictional characters, as well as certain...

The Taste of a Dog Biscuit

Imagine what Vermeer could have done with this!

I find it poignant to look into the eyes of an adopted dog or cat. Always, I wonder, what was its former life like? Who loved it? Who didn’t? How did it come to me? Temps perdu! There’s no magic dog biscuit that can recall those memories. Even more poignant is the realization that the animal is constantly telling me what I need to know, but in a language I’m ill-equipped to master. Sometimes the tale is easy to craft: our pirate-cat Gayatri’s fli...

Dusting Cobwebs: Or, the Internet is Constantly Becoming Obsolete

I’ve put it off for over a week, ever since I last faced the ancient web site…the ancient software needed to update it. Over a decade ago, I grabbed the best solution available to build a text site for a shoestring nonprofit run by a nationally respected visionary. They wanted fast downloads on already obsolete machines, on dial up systems. They wanted more text than most people could imagine. They wanted it easy on the eyes. They enthusiastically toss things up on it, willy-nilly.

They have n...

Legal Fictions: Judges

A friend of mine was excited to learn that the ruling finding Pennsylvania’s ban on marriage equality unconstitutional was written by the same judge who rejected the intelligent design curriculum in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican appointed by the junior Bush.

My friend was amazed that a Republican appointee would make what are considered progressive rulings, and in today’s partisan world it certainly seems rare. But traditionally,...

WWW Wednesday: YES Amy Sterling Casil reads …

WWW Wednesday. This meme is fromshouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’m re-reading Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first book in the Vorkosigan/Barrayar books. It’s a funny thing about reviews. Look at thecontemporaneous reviews for this book which launched a career, thousands of diehard fands...

Tropes Must Be True!

I was a very, very bad Amy at one of my Baycon panels. I think the programming committee saw that I’d checked I’d be willing to be on the “Romance in SF/F” panel and saw “female” and added me to this all-female lineup of diehard romance writers and readers.

Yeah. I wrote one delicate sex scene 10 years ago that I had to ask Ron Collins for help with. Mel in “To Kiss the Star” suffered from unrequited love for John. I only checked the box because I figuredAstá and Broos were some type of big co...

BVC Eats: Chorizo empanadas

ready-to-bake chorizo empanadas

JEN’S CHORIZO EMPANADAS

Quick’n’dirty, delicious, no leftovers! Makes four to six empanadas.

Preheat oven to 350 or 375oF

1 lb chorizo, nuked 4-8 minutes but not drained

a rich pie crust

2 cups flour

½ c sugar

1 t salt

2/3 cup butter or a bit more (up to ¾ cup)

5 to 7 T cold water

Mix the dry ingredients well. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add cold water sparingly, mixing gently, rather than beating or kneading.

Break pie dough i...

Second Thoughts on SECOND THOUGHTS

A funny thing happened on the way to the Diamond Brides Series…

When I came up with the idea of nine short, hot contemporary romance novels built around an imaginary baseball team, I knew that titles would be part of the fun. Each book features a different position player; therefore each title should allude to that player’s position — Perfect PITCH, CATCHing Hell, Reaching FIRST…

But when I got to the second baseman’s book, things got interesting. The novel is a reunion story; the hero and hero...

Adventures in Author Readings

Over the decades, I’ve done many readings, and each one has a story behind it.

All kinds of things can go wrong at readings. Nobody shows up – that’s the classic “worst fear” of newer (and experienced!) writers. Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. I consider the experience part of being a working writer interacting with the public. It’s not a reflection on my work or me personally, it’s just the way things go. I wait for a reasonable amount of time to accommodate late-comers before decid...