Category: Blog

That feeling when you’re tempted to write an essay explaining how Heathers is a better musical than Les Miserables. But there are probably better uses of your time, so you try to let the feeling pass.‬

Under 1978 copyright law, Spider-Man would have entered the public domain in 2019.

I just saw someone arguing that public domain Spider-Man would be a nightmare, cause then people could make him trans/gay/bi/etc.

Copyright law right now is on the side of evil and fascism. Continue reading “Grow the Public Domain”

Me: I should really focus more on my writing…

Also me: puts lure on coffee shop PokéStop

The story-telling part of my brain is acting like a dog who I’ve put on a leash but doesn’t want to go on a walk… just lying there on the floor, pretending to have no feet and insisting that if I want it to write stories, I’ll have to drag it.

‪T.K., Truggster, and Kermit urge me to add words to my blank page, but instead, I stubbornly go buy another drink because this place has one called “German chocolate cake in a cup,” and I must try it.‬

Update: it is A-MA-ZING.

There is soooooo much sugar in this German-chocolate-cake-in-a-cup drink. Sooooooo much.

Stomach: why are you putting this much sugar in me? oof
Brain: we will bathe in the brilliance of sugary goodness forever! feed us sugar and you can write again!

Me, working on a story that makes no sense: “Wait, wait, no, stop, what if there was an octopus… that… used to be eight mice????”

‪I am told that letting me buy a giant inflatable narwhal on this much of a sugar high would be like letting someone get a tattoo while drunk. But giant inflatable rainbow-and-sparkle blue narwhals are waaaay less permanent.‬

So, I came down from the sugar high of the German-chocolate-cake-in-a-cup drink… but there was still a third of it left… and it was mine… so… I mean… I had to drink it… And now I’m flying again. I do not know how they cram that much sugar into one drink.‬

I’ve been seeing  a lot of interest in my robot stories, ever since “The Three Laws of Social Robotics” came out in Analog.  So this page is a guide to where readers can find more of my stories about Maradia’s robots. Continue reading “Maradia’s Robots”

‪I never dream about my house. I dream weird new houses, which made sense when it looked like we’d have to sell this house and move away. But this morning, I think my brain tried to dream about my house. The result was a strange hybrid of the bones of the house I grew up in, set on the hill where I live now, with all of the furniture stripped away and stolen. Continue reading “House Dreams”

I quite like Star Trek (‘09), but my absolute favorite part is Spock’s answer when Uhura asks what he needs, after his homeworld is destroyed. It captures so much of the heart of Trek & why it’s the future we need:‬

‪“I need everyone to continue performing admirably.”‬

And now it’s time to hang out watching the five-year-old’s gymnastics class with the incongruous sound of #CrazyExGirlfriend soundtracks in my earbuds.‬ Continue reading “Admirable is Better than Amiable”

Twenty-seven years later, I suddenly wonder… shouldn’t it have been “A League of Our Own” instead of “A League of Their Own” so that the title centers on the perspective of the women it’s about?

Except of course it wasn’t, because women are always “the other”… Continue reading “Theirs vs. Ours”

Between editing, critiquing, and being in a book group, it’s getting to where reading a book for no particular reason is quite a treat.‬

‪Also, it feels weird to take a break from reading to… do some reading. But that’s what I want to do sometimes…‬

The 11-year-old, who has in fact seen all the Star Wars movies: ‬

‪“I thought… Luke was the one who turns into Darth Vader?”‬

‪And this is why insisting kids see Star Wars in the “right” order has always seemed silly to me.‬