Month: January 2005

  • Here’s A Horror Story to Keep You Awake Nights

    A solid percentage of high-school students believe the government should approve news stories. I’m no fan of the press in its current danratherspeak form. I think reporting the news means reporting all the news, not just the bits you hope are true. But … holy shit. The whole point of the First Amendment is that…

  • HAWKSPAR Words, and LGD On the Horizon

    Finished at 75,502. A smidge over what I needed for my three thousand. Now to look over the next portion of LAST GIRL DANCING. I’ve hit the part that is going to take a complete toss-out-and-rewrite. Oh, yippee. Claire had a great idea for a direction to take in the rewrite; now I just have…

  • Hawkspar and Slavery and Freedom

    One of the themes that I hadn’t planned, but that keeps recurring as Hawkspar works her way toward her date with destiny, is what it means to be a slave versus what it means to be free. This particular theme keeps presenting itself in different guises, and every time, it keeps catching me by surprise.…

  • I Was Way Wrong

    My decidedly libertarian take on prostitution has always been that it ought to be legalized, then taxed, regulated, and health-inspected. That seemed to me a sensible way to deal with an issue that is never, ever going to go away. However, in Germany, where that precise approach to prostitution has been taken, a waitress has…

  • Day-Off Discoveries

    So … on my day off, first I discover that the character who dies in the first section knew the date and time of her death beforehand. This is critical in so many ways — it changes the meaning of almost everything that happens through the rest of the book, but hugely in the first…

  • Congratulations to the Iraqi People

    With a 72% turn-out of eligible voters, the astonishing courage of the citizens voting Iraq’s first free election demonstrates once again that freedom is not just for the privileged, but a basic human right for everyone, and a much-desired right. I celebrate with every Iraqi who walked to a voting booth and voted — who…

  • Over 7000 Words of Revison

    And now, by popular request (from my guys) I’m done until Monday. Having written myself a day off, it has been decreed that I shall take in now. Download as PDFPrint Page

  • Do They Teach You This In Survival School?

    How to pee your way out of an avalanche. Seems to me if they, don’t, they should. Download as PDFPrint Page

  • Hah! Hah! And Again I Say ….

    6467 words for the day. Finished at 72,290. Going to do two hours of revisions on LAST GIRL DANCING next, and then call the day on account of miracles, and go play the guitar. Jean finished her book. And I made a hell of a nice dent in mine. I’m now more than one third…

  • Checking In Again

    Jean’s almost finished with her book — she’s on the last scene. I’m damned close to rolling over 6000 words for the day. And she’s had an adventure, which I’ll pass on. With about five thousand words done, her laptop locked up on her. She could see the screen, but couldn’t get in. She’d lose…