This morning, I finished the second draft of my first new short story in far too long. The second draft came in at 10,660 words vs. a first draft length of 5,338 words. I could have given you a ballpark figure for this new draft before I even began my revisions—my second drafts are invariably twice the length of my first drafts. It’s not intentional. I’m not deliberately aiming for that doubling. That’s just how my mind works when adding detail to the armature of a story.

As for the title, I don’t have one yet. Oh, I have plenty of working titles, but all of those have been tested and rejected. A few of the ones unlikely to end up attached to this tale are “People, Like Balloons,” “We All Deserved Better,” “This Impossibility, This Inevitability,” and “Impossibility, Inevitability, and the Space Between.”

There’ll be several more drafts before I’m ready to unleash the story on an editor. But why should you have to wait for a peek until someone else deems it worthy? Here’s some of the first draft which I been sharing immediately after having written it over on Instagram and Twitter. As you can see, I start off working in a longhand that’s scribbled so quickly and illegibly that the result is barely decipherable even to me.

Enjoy. Or something.

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Sunday night’s surprise snowfall forced me to cancel our dinner reservations at the recently opened Aggio, which caused me to undergo a bit of Bryan Voltaggio withdrawal. Luckily, I had various errands to run over in Maryland Tuesday, which gave me a perfectly good reason to drop by one of the chef’s other restaurants, Family Meal. I’ve been enjoying that spot ever since it opened back in 2012.

I started, of course, with my favorite appetizer, the chicken pot pie fritters.

When I placed my order, the server indicated that the recipe had been tweaked to include crushed Ritz crackers in the crust. Surprisingly, this improved a concept I already enjoyed. The coating held together the pot pie filling more tightly, and made for an even more interesting contrast between the shell and what was inside. (more…)

I learned Sunday that my oldest friend in the world, Robert Freedman, had passed away a few days earlier. Except for my mother and my younger brother, I’d known him longer than anyone on the planet—54 years, which is a startling length of time to contemplate.

We were in the same kindergarten class at Brooklyn’s P.S. 238, and continued together in the same class through the 5th grade. We were inseparable, with a similar sense of humor, always competing for the title of class clown. We’d trade whatever jokes we’d heard from comedians the night before on TV, which meant we were often chastised by teachers for talking too much or laughing too loud. But that wasn’t going to stop either of us from getting to the punchline of whatever joke Henny Youngman had told on The Ed Sullivan Show the night before! (more…)

If you’ve been wondering when you were going to get a chance to read for yourself the short story I real aloud at the 2012 Worldcon, that time is now!

The Monkey’s Other Paw: Revived Classic Stories of Dread and the Dead has begun to ship from NonStop Press, and for a limited time, the shipping cost is on them.

So if you’d like to read my semi-sequel to Saki’s “The Open Window,” plus other homages from the likes of Don Webb, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Di Filippo, Damien Broderick, and Steve Rasnic Tem—and save on the postage as well—here’s how to get the trade paperback or the hardcover.

Or both!

The only time I ever met Paul Fung, Jr., who was the artist on the Blondie comic book for 40 years, he was younger than I am now, and I was 17.

I was attending the 1973 Reuben Awards banquet thanks to friend Bill Kresse, and clueless teen comics fan that I was, I wandered the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria with a pad and magic markers and asked the artists there—who were far more interested in eating, drinking, dancing, and schmoozing with their friends—for sketches.

Which is how I ended up with drawings of Superman by Curt Swan, Beetle Bailey by Mort Walker, Zonker Harris by Garry Trudeau, and many others … including this one from Fung.

Here’s wishing Paul Fung, Jr., who took the time to be nice to a teen noodge long ago and far away, a happy 91st birthday. May there be many more!

A bunch of my New York pals have been posting selfies with perennially rumored-to-be-dead actor Abe Vigoda, all taken last night at an opening cocktail party for the exhibition of Drew Friedman’s Old Jewish Comedians. When I checked Wikipedia to learn how old Abe Vigoda was anyway—he turns out to be 93—I learned the even more startling fact that his brother was longtime Archie Comics artist Bill Vigoda!

After being wowed by that surprising bit of news—which I feel as if I should have known—I remembered … Hey, I’ve met Bill Vigoda!

Considering the fact Bill Vigoda died in 1973, it was a looooong time ago, when I was still but a comics fan, not yet having been hired to work at Marvel Comics. To alleviate my jealously over those friends having gotten to hang out with brother Abe, I thought I’d take my own selfie with brother Bill.

And so … (more…)

I’ve already shared about the major sites we saw while on Easter Island—Ahu Tongariki, Ranu Raraku, Orongo and Ranu Kau. If you happen to visit Easter Island as part of a cruise, that’s likely all you’ll get to see, because you’ll be ferried ashore (the cruise ships are too large to dock), rushed through those core sites in a single day without getting enough time at any of them, and then head back to sea.

But there’s so much more that the one-day visitor will overlook. Here’s what else we were lucky enough to visit during our time there.

During our first full day, our guide, in addition to taking us to Ahu Tongariki and Ranu Raraku, also drove us to …

Ahu Hanga Te’e

The eight moai which once stood upright here are now toppled, a few with broken necks, and their massive topknots have rolled forward off the platform. I could feel the weight of history, and inevitably thought of Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” (more…)

As I flipped through the March 2014 issue of Marvel Previews late last night—which I’d downloaded to my iPad, as that’s how I do most of my comics reading these days—I came across a listing for the upcoming Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Volume 5, which will include my seven-issue run on that title.

Made my heart glad to see those comics getting renewed life. Back when I wrote them, I’d never have dreamed they’d be reprinted in a hardcover book.

If you ever wanted to get your hands on those issues without having to pore through the ’70s bins at your local comics shop, now’s your chance!

A new month has begun, so it’s time to corral all of the previous month’s dreams that I shared on Twitter and see what sense they make when placed in close proximity. There are far fewer dreams below than in any other month since I started doing this, for which I blame our recent vacation in Santiago and Easter Island. Due to exhaustion, many of my dreams effervesced upon waking and could not be recorded … which for someone with an active dream life like mine is unsettling.

In any case, check out last month’s dreams, which included guest appearances from Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Silverberg, Robert Blake, and many others …

February 2014


I dreamt I found Michael Swanwick, Gardner Dozois and others on a looong line, but never found the front, or learned why they were waiting. Feb 28 


I dreamt I arrived at a church where I was volunteering, saw others on hands and knees scrubbing the sidewalk, and thought, “this is bogus.”
 Feb 28 



I dream I bumped into Nancy Kress, who forced $20 on me, claimed it was payment for a photo, then ran off, leaving me totally baffled. 
Feb 28 



I dreamt (for no discernible reason) that Robert Blake was dressed like a bishop, and kept tripping as he walked down the street. Strange.
 Feb 27 



I dreamt I was Santa, but instead of riding ON the sleigh, I’d fallen off and was being dragged behind. And the damn reindeer wouldn’t stop!
 Feb 27 



I dreamt it was in the old timey days, and I was riding the rails with my boss, and there was foreshadowing that there’d be a train robbery.
 Feb 27 


I dreamt an old lady stopped me on the street and asked me to play “Good Night, Irene” on my ukulele. I said — Are you sure? It’s so SAD! 
Feb 27 



I dreamt I rowed furiously across a stormy ocean until I hit land. But I soon realized I’d come to rest on the back of a huge sea creature!
 Feb 26 



I dreamt Paul Witcover and I had discovered a cache of badly drawn Western comics from the ’50s, but were managing to enjoy them anyway. 
Feb 25 



I dreamt I was to receive a juggling trophy, but I was late for the ceremony because @IreneVartanoff had trouble getting through security.
 Feb 25 
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I’ve been getting a lot of use out of my Sansaire Immersion Circulator since I received it … was it really only ten days ago?

The first things I tried to sous vide were short ribs, followed by eggs. Saturday night, I moved on to skinless chicken breasts, which I vacuum sealed and dropped into a 140-degree Fahrenheit bath for 90 minutes, the time and temperature recommended by Sansaire.

Result?

Extremely juicy chicken, seen here surrounded by broccoli fried with pecans and raisins. (more…)