Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 7

This is … Hogwarts (Or Not)

This is … Hogwarts West. Or at least it should be, don’t you think?

It’s actually a student hall at the University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh which Jeff and I visited when we were Guests of Honor at Confluence last year.

The University also had some amazing classrooms with international decor.

I should note that Pittsburgh is a beautiful city which we got to see remarkable aspects of thanks to able guides Randy Hoff and France Andrews Zeve.

This is … Something I Saw the Other Day

 This is … a gathering of Macaws are apparently chatting while their custodian is having lunch at a local Boulanger. They are not tethered in any way, nor was their guardian anywhere in sight. He (or she) had gone into the restaurant for a bite … which is what would happen to any one brazen enough (and naive enough) to attempt to steal these glorious birds.

Those beaks can crush a Brazil nut with no problem. Just imagine what they would do to sticky fingers.

I note that the truck matches the...

“This is…” a Photo Journal

I was poring over my cache of photos and images this morning and decided that I’d like to share them with y’all (in my opinion, the single most useful word concatenation in the universe) in a sort of photo journal. I’d love for it to be a daily photo journal but the chances of me doing something on a daily basis besides waking up eventually and drinking a cup of coffee (or two) are slim and none and, as a new writing collaborator put it, slim just left town.

So, here is the first “This is…”

T...

Feast or Famine

Feast or Famine is a phrase that describes this writer’s life a bit too perfectly. Right now, I’m at a feast. A cornucopia of rich goodies—like literary chicken makhini, kung pao bean curd, cottage pie and curry.

I’ve got multiple fiction projects on my metaphorical plate, as well as enough blog opportunities to give me a sugar rush.

What am I working on right now? I’m glad you asked, imaginary fanboy or girl.

I have just begun a fascinating collaboration with a first-time writer on a supern...

Really, Really Pretending: Bowling Green

There is a Baha’i prayer that invokes aid from God ”to refute what is vain and false.” Since Baha’is are also not to participate in partisan politics, finding a balance between these two mandates can be difficult. This is my attempt to apply the spirit of Baha’u’llah’s prayer without entering into partisan political discourse, because in the final analysis, it doesn’t matter who uttered the words below. What matters is that these words represent the government of the country in which I was bo...

News, Fluff and Damn Fluff

I use a news aggregator to ping me with breaking news stories. My sources run the gamut from NPR to Fox to CNN to the AP News to The Guardian to DailyMail to Breitbart to Vox. Obviously of these media outlets, NPR, Fox, Associated Press, CNN and the Guardian are what I would call major news outlets because of the size of their audience.

I’ve noticed that Fox’s news feed is out of phase with literally all the other news sources. Yesterday, for example, they had nothing on the gag order affecti...

There’s a Bimbo on the Cover … Seriously.

When I was asked to submit stories for a collection of my favorite short fiction as part of my being a Windycon Guest of Honor, I had originally intended to entitle the collectionThe Existence of Avalon because of the last line in one of the stories in the book.

Somewhere during the planning of the collection, the publisher—personified in Bill Roper—said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if the cover art had that Bimbo you sing about in the filk song “There’s a Bimbo on the Cover of the Book.”

I agr...

Our Most Challenging Issue – Six

The following is the entirety of Part IV of The Vision of Race Unity: America’s Most Challenging Issue.

The responsibility for the achievement of racial peace and unity in the United States rests upon both Black and White Americans. To build a society in which the rights of all its members are respected and guaranteed, both races must be animated with the spirit of optimism and faith in the eventual realization of their highest aspirations. Neither White nor Black Americans should assume that...

Book Release! TAMINY in Trade Paperback!

If you’re one of those people who thinks eBooks are for über-nerds, who lovesto hold aphysical book in their hands, smell the paper, feel the glossy cover (ooh, shiny!), and delight in words that don’t disappear when batteries run low, you’ll be pleased to know that on December 9th, you will be able to buy both Books One and Two of myMer Cycle trilogy in trade paperback.

That’s right, fantasy fans. Taminy, Book Two of the Mer Cyclewill join the Crawford Award andLocus Best First Novel nominee...

Our Most Challenging Issue – Five

A frequent refrain in media, in social networking memes and posts, in political rhetoric and in classrooms is that the United States is the greatest nation on Earth. It has also been called a grand experiment and a melting pot.

It is exactly that peculiar nature of our country—that it was founded by immigrants and sought to welcome and include yet more immigrants of diverse tribes—that makes it unique. Comedian Jon Stewart commented in a recent interview that, in setting up this ”one nation”...