Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 79
April 4, 2013
Free Ride through Time
Attention, biblio-nauts! I’m kicking offa promotion forone of my recent novels. Starting tomorrow (Friday, April 5), you can get a free copy of Unraveling Timefor your Kindle-reader. No gimmicks. No strings. From April 5 through April 9, this book is entirely free. Go, get it, and keep it forever. It is literally yours for the [...]
April 3, 2013
Hard-Boiled Writing
There are some things I cannot do and will never be able to do. I will execute a perfect entrechat huit.I will never date Morena Baccarin. I will never be the conductor of a world-famous symphonic orchestra. I will never eat balut. The items on this list are there due to my physical limitations, my [...]
April 2, 2013
Replacement Therapy
I watch a lot of British television–a lot for an American, that is–and not just on BBC America. I watch Masterpiece Theater, I subscribe to Acorn TV, and I even buy DVDs direct from the UK so I can see some shows not available any other way (“New Tricks” is a good example). But there’s [...]
April 1, 2013
It Was a What, Now?
It’s one of those things I dreaded. A reader of the Fallen Cloud Saga has asked me what species of dinosaurs I used in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrific that readers want this kind of detail and “behind the scenes” info, and I’m morethan happy to provide it, but I know this [...]
March 29, 2013
Seattle’s Other Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) gets a lot of press. With its prominent location, its recent mega-buck expansion, and its “Hammering Man” sculpture out front, it gets noticed and it gets visited–a lot. SAM has an excellent permanent collection, spanning two millennia of art history and representing cultures from every continent, and it has a [...]
March 28, 2013
Amp That Vid
The eye is an incredible organ, but it has itslimits. We can’t see infrared or ultraviolet, much less anywhere else along the massive electromagnetic spectrum. We can’t see very well at night or when we’re surrounded by a lot of reflected sunshine. The eye is particularly susceptible to defects, from myopia and astigmatism to cataracts [...]
March 27, 2013
Requiescat in Compost
Today, as wide-eyed robins tweedle at the bluing grey of the overcast Seattle dawn, I prepare to say farewell to an old friend. Nearly twenty years ago, we bought this, our first house. It was a blitzkrieg day, viewing house after house, some empty, some occupied, some small, some large. Our realtor took us all [...]
March 26, 2013
Squeeze Play
It’s a sad fact of life, but publishing is a business. Not only that, it’s a cutthroat business. So is bookselling. With profit margins shrinking and the sudden surge in e-book sales, the entire industry is in an uproar, and nowhere more so than in good, old brick-and-mortar bookshops. Frankly, aside from a recent visit [...]
March 25, 2013
Black Gold
Foodie Alert! If you don’t know already, it’s black truffle season. What? What’s that? You can’t afford them? You refuse to pay $500/ounce for these bad boys? I don’t blame you. I won’t pay that much for anythingunless it’s going to save my frakkinglife. (Or my wife’s life, but don’t tell her. She’ll get a [...]
March 22, 2013
Too Much Fun
It’s been a long, tough week. I’ve been on-call at work, and the emphasis has been on “call.” But my stint ends this afternoon, and I’ll have the weekend to rest, relax, maybe spend some time in the garden. Yesterday, though, an item crossed my desk that made my co-workers worry about me. I sat [...]
