I was just reading the latest issue of Esquire, which is a better magazine than you probably give it credit for. In his editorial, Editor-in-Chief David Granger recounted a trip to his father-in-law’s memorial service, and how Bill Dodson’s eldest son, Dick, praised his father by comparing his traits to those listed in the Boy Scout Law.

Granger then included a condensed version of those suggested behaviors, which I share with you here.

As I read through the list of attributes to which we should all aspire, I kept thinking to myself, “Yep, yep, trying to do that, and that, too”—until I got to one which instead had me thinking, “No way!”

Do you know me well enough to be able to tell which of the rules rubbed me the wrong way?

Let’s see!

The star of my Saturday at Readercon was Maureen McHugh. (Actually, the true star of Saturday may have been my amazing dinner with friends at Journeyman, which lasted around four hours and 45 minutes, but let’s leave that for another day.) Maureen, one of the Readercon Guests of Honor, gave a reading at 10:00 a.m., and then was interviewed by Kelly Link at 5:00 p.m.

First up, here’s Maureen reading a story from her collection After the Apocalypse.

But before we get into that GoH interview, here’s a 1:00 p.m. reading by F. Brett Cox. (more…)

My Friday at Readercon was a whirlwind, filled with so many panels and conversations that I didn’t have time to grab lunch, surviving until dinner on a handful of nuts and dried fruit grabbed in the con suite. I did a reading, a kaffeeklatch, and a panel on Life After Clarion, sat in the audience for a couple of panels, and stayed up late with David Shaw strumming our ukuleles.

I’m not sure which song we were struggling through in the above photo. Were we mangling Amanda Palmer’s “Ukulele Anthem”? Or butchering Randy Newman’s “Political Science 101”? I can’t be sure. I only know that you’re all lucky Diane Martin only snapped a still picture, and didn’t bother capturing any video. Because if she had, no one would ever want to attend another Readercon!

But to show you why you should get to one, here’s more video, on top of Thursday’s, which will show what fun was had. (more…)

It was great to return to Readercon after missing 2012’s edition, because I became quite jealous of flat me, who due to an unfortunately coincidence, got to have all the fun last year.

I’m going to keep this short, because I want to throw myself quickly into Friday’s maelstrom.

For those friends who couldn’t make it this year, and wanted to see what it meant that there’d be no lobby during the con because of Marriott’s grand renovation plans, here’s a view toward the entrance from the hallway where registration to the con takes place. That’s the revolving door to the left, and to the right, that wall’s blocking off where the lobby usually is.

I hope that by the time they’re done, they won’t be too high class for the likes of us.

And here are two panels from last night, so those of you who couldn’t make it this year—or who did make it but were in one of the other rooms enjoying some other panel or reading—won’t miss out. (more…)

Old friends visited us from New York over the long weekend, and there was much baking and grilling and blowing stuff up real good, all activities that are mandatory when celebrating the 4th of July.

Last night, we somehow got around to discussing the evolution of the QWERTY keyboard, and then we moved on to praising the IBM Selectric typewriter, much beloved by those of us lucky enough to have owned one during the pre-computer past. Which made me remember that one of the old magazines I own (and in case you don’t happen to know, I love reading newspapers and magazines that are a century or more old) contains multiple ads for typewriters, which were then not so many decades old, at least commercially.

So here is what you could have ordered from the back pages of the January 1893 issue of The Cosmopolitan … if you were able to make up your mind when faced with the wildly varying styles. (more…)

June is over and we’re firmly into July, which means it’s time to gather together all of last month’s dream tweets and see what poetry can be made by allowing them to rub together.

In June, I dreamt of Adam Sandler, Rose Fox, Elijah Wood, George Bush, John Scalzi, and more.

JUNE 2013

I dreamt Adam Sandler was explaining to me the FX of one of his movies, and I didn’t want to hurt his feeling by telling him I never saw it. 30 Jun

I dreamt my mother while visiting asked me whether I was on tranquilizers, because she felt I was smiling too much. Just high on life, Mom! 30 Jun

I know I had lots of dreams, but remember the details of none of them. Only that one involved the apocalypse. And another … fried chicken. 29 Jun

I dreamt I found a lost mini-recorder at an airport, and was sure that when I listened to it I would find evidence of a great crime. 28 Jun

I dreamt I was with boss @CraigEngler in Chicago, presenting clips of new upcoming @Syfy shows to an auditorium packed with fans. 28 Jun

I dreamt my neighbor built a homemade TIE fighter and was doing wild aerial stunts. But she crashed, and we had to rescue her from a ravine. 28 Jun

I dreamt I was at Readercon, and someone (I didn’t recognize) wandered the halls demanding people re-up their SFWA membership on the spot. 28 Jun

I dreamt I was in a huge con suite as announcements were being made to thunderous applause. Don’t remember what any of them were though! 27 Jun

I dreamt I was part of a bunch of peasants eating from a communal bowl in which a snake suddenly appeared. So I killed it with a broadsword. 27 Jun

I dreamt I was in China with the U.S. ambassador, who got a message that @ResaNelson would arrive the next day — but I’d be home by then. 26 Jun (more…)

Two weeks from tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Burlington, Massachusetts for Readercon—the real me, not the flat life-sized cardboard me I sent in my stead last year after I was forced to miss my first Readercon ever due to a conflict with the San Diego Comic-Con.

If you’ll be there, too, here’s where you’ll be able to find me … when I’m not in the bar or sitting in the audience during other readings and panels, or, who knows, eating a durian in the parking lot while strumming a ukulele.

Friday July 12

Reading
12:30 PM VT
I’ll be reading “Things That Never Happened,” forthcoming in PostScripts.

Kaffeeklatsch
3:00 PM CL
with Michael Blumlein

Life After Clarion
8:00 PM RI
The Clarion SF Workshop is one of the best in the world for budding science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers. Many of today’s award-winning authors are Clarion graduates. For six weeks, Clarion students have the luxury of learning from top-notch authors and editors while living the life of a full-time writer. But once Clarion ends, what do you do next? How do you take what you learn at Clarion and apply it to your writing life and your real life? And how do you adjust from having the support of other writers to possibly having very little or none at all? Professional writers who graduated from Clarion in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s share their life-after-Clarion experiences.
with Ron Drummond, E.C. Myers, Resa Nelson (leader), Ken Schneyer

Saturday July 13

Which Ideas Are Worth Keeping?
2:00 PM G
Many writers have file folders of unfinished stories or novels that never jelled or never seemed quite publishable. How do you decide which ideas to reject, which to pitch, and which simply to follow through on based on your own convictions?
with Daryl Gregory, Margo Lanagan, Yoon Ha Lee and Allen Steele

Hope to see you there!

A few weeks back, I ran across a piece of my writing from a few decades ago that was so horrendous I felt I dared not share it with you. And when I told you that, I asked that you remember what Ezra Pound had said.

Found a poem I wrote 20+ years ago about Clarion. Man, was I pretentious! I _won't_ be sharing it with you. Remember what Ezra Pound said.

— Scott Edelman (@scottedelman) June 7, 2013

I figured I should share the exact quote—but when I went looking, I couldn’t find it. And neither could my friends who know more about Pound than I ever will. Which meant the only way to track down the quote was to dig out my diaries and find the page on which I had copied it over in my own hand from a book I’d found while visiting a friend in Eugene, Oregon. (I was staying with him because we’d attended Clarion together and I was going to head over to Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm’s house in the same city to take part in one of their famous workshops.)

Anyway, I’ve now finally found the time to locate the right diary—I’ve been keeping up with it since 1978 and so had a LOT of volumes to go through—and learned exactly why none of us could find that Pound quote, even with all the power of the Internet at our disposal.

(more…)

I wasn’t able to make it to the June George Formby Society convention in Blackpool. I suspect you weren’t able to be there either. (Well, most of you, anyway.) Luckily, David Brindley was there to film the two-day event, and he’s since cut together a couple of hours of highlights.

Check out the strumming and merriment below!

George Formby Society Convention June 2013 – Part 1 from DeeBee Web Design on Vimeo.

(more…)

Yes, I exercise—in fact, today was my 45th consecutive day of walking at least 10,000 steps/5 miles (assuming my new Fitbit Flex can be trusted, that is).

But according to this suggestion from way back in Superman #1 (which DC Comics has been giving away free via its iPad app as part of a Man of Steel promotion), I’m doing exercise all wrong!

I hope it’s not too late to change my ways.

Time to start hefting furniture over my head, I guess …