I have just finished reading a great fat Groff Conklin anthology, The Classic Book of Science Fiction, known as The Big Book of Science Fiction upon its original release in 1950.  How good is it after sixty-two years, how relevant?  Well, of the 32 stories included, I distinctly recall reading only Ray Bradbury's "Forever and the Earth" and Damon ( Read more... )

I was up till late last night, savoring electoral developments.  Although I live in a Republican state, so red that it gives off infrared radiation,  I defiantly vote for progressive candidates every two years.  One of these times I may be pleasantly surprised and wake up in a blue state.  Or at least a purple one ( Read more... )

Not that I needed more books in my house, not that I didn't already have sufficient reading matter in hand to last me through the winter, but I went to a Friends of the Library book sale in Murfreesboro this morning and came away with the following hardcovers:

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death -- Albert Camus
Adam Bede -- George Eliot
A Brief History ( Read more... )

Publishers Weekly has reviewed Invisible Kingdoms and thereby made my day, again.

Invisible Kingdoms

Steven Utley. Ticonderoga (www.ticonderogapublications.com), $13.99 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-1-921857-33-1

This is the second volume collecting Utley’s Silurian Tales, following November 2012’s The 400-Million-Year Itch. Presented in an internally ( Read more... )

I have got this far into my weekend correcting galley proofs, doing laundry, hauling stuff to the recycling station, and reading 40-year-old thrillers, e.g., Bill Pronzini's The Vanished, recently scooped up from the discard table at the Smyrna Public Library.  Last night's selection was by the English writer John Creasey (1908-73), who published ( Read more... )

Russell Farr of Ticonderoga Publications has made my morning by passing along the following item from Publishers Weekly.

The 400-Million-Year Itch
Steven Utley. Ticonderoga (www.ticonderogapublications.com), $13.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-921857-17-1For the first time, 18 of Utley’s intriguing Silurian Tales (and an additional original offering ( Read more... )

I didn't watch this week's Democratic National Convention but followed it by live blog at Daily Kos.  Even allowing for the fact that coverage was provided by the same bunch of commie fag junkies who naturally dissed last week's sour (and, once Clint Eastwood had come on stage, surreal) RNC, in terms of almost everything, from message to musical ( Read more... )

I didn't watch so much as a second of the Republican National Convention this past week, but lurked with fellow commie fag junkies at Daily Kos and followed each evening's action, such as it was, by live blog.  I had sorta been hoping for fistfights on the floor and police brutality a la Chicago 1968, or maybe an Irwin Allen-type disaster with ( Read more... )

My favorite quote of the week about the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan ticket is from Floyd Elliot, over at Daily Kos: "... seriously, Mitt looks like the cocoon that Ryan crawled out of ...."  I wish I had said that, but I didn't, and all power to Mr. Elliot.  The essay from which the line comes, "Paul Ryan, Thinky Guy," is worth reading in its entirety.

I ( Read more... )

Russell Farr of Ticonderoga Publications (way yonder on the far side of Down Under) has e-mailed me galley proofs of both volumes of Silurian tales, The 400-Million-Year Itch and Invisible Kingdoms, and even as I write my little Hewlitt Packard All-in-One office machine is steadfastly chugging along, printing out the 287 pages of 400MYI.  This will ( Read more... )