How much did we love bicycles in 1898?

So much so that the January 1898 issue of The Nickell was packed with ads for bikes and biking accessories, such as the Columbia Chainless Bicycle (“totally unaffected by mud, dust, rain, or sleet”), the “Serrate Tread” Tire (if your dealer doesn’t have the new ’98 model, “tell him he’s not up to date), and The Wheelmen’s Gazette (“an illustrated monthly magazine devoted to the grandest, healthiest, most manly sport in the world—cycling”).

But what really proved to me that bicycling wasn’t just a hobby in those days, but a craze, was the poem “Ye Ballad of Ye Mermaiden,” in which a mermaid was spellbound … by a cyclist.

Or the wheelman’s “wondrous shell on which you travel so fast and well,” anyway.

I assume “she scorches beneath the sea” in the poem’s final line merely meant she was going very fast. But if you’ve got a better handle on the slang of the late 19th century, let me know!

So as I continued flipping through the January 1989 issue of The Nickell, a tiny ad, no more than 1/16 of a page in size, caught my eye. It was mixed in with other similarly small ads for things such as skate sharpeners and cancer cures, only this one, instead of being quaint, was puzzling.

It offered to sell readers a “bold, brave book” about the “ethics of marriage,” but as I looked more closely, I wondered whether the fine print was a coded message for information about contraception.

After all, what else could have been meant by the term “controlled maternity”? (more…)

I was flipping through the January 1898 issue of The Nickell—which, as you know, is the kind of thing I love to do, because it’s the closest to a time machine I’m going to get—

—when I spotted a poignant advertisement filled with nostalgia not just for the late 19th century—but for the early 19th century as well. (more…)

Way back in the ’70s, Marvel’s Sol Brodsky commissioned me to write an Incredible Hulk coloring book. I wrote the script, turned it in, got paid for it … and then never heard a thing about it ever again.

Not until last week, when I spotted a cover from 1977 over at The Marvel Age of Comics Tumblr which had me wondering … is that the same coloring book I wrote? I couldn’t be sure, but luckily, within a few hours, Paul Di Filippo alerted me to an eBay auction, and I jumped, exercising the Buy Now option so there’d be no chance I’d lose out.

Well, now that I’ve had a chance to read the thing—all 230 words of it—I’m going to say that this is the coloring book I wrote all those years ago. And I’ll keep saying that until someone comes along to contradict me. (more…)

Looking back at November, it seems I had fewer dreams that month than any month I can remember. And I have no idea why.

No matter. I’m still tossing my dream tweets together here to see if they make more sense when rubbing up against each other this way.

November’s guest stars included Caroline Kennedy, Robert Silverberg, Jay Lake and the doctors and interns of Seattle Grace Hospital …

November 2013



I dreamt I was about to do a reading and ‪@jay_lake wheeled in a cot so I could tuck in with the audience as if sharing a bedtime story. 30 Nov

I dreamt I was in a hospital for tests, and my nurse handed me a needle and told me to find a vein and draw my own blood. I told her … no. 

30 Nov

I dreamt I took an intensive writing course, which was great, but my teacher could only speak Spanish … and so we had some difficulties.

 29 Nov

I dreamt I peered outside in search of deer, and instead saw a large lizard, at least six feet long, ambling along. Which didn’t seem odd. 

27 Nov

I dreamt a woman was being attacked by a crowd in the UK, and I intervened to save her — but when I looked around after, she’d disappeared.

 27 Nov

I dreamt I was first in line at ‪@FranklinBBQ, with ‪@IreneVartanoff, ‪@Shunn, and ‪@Chavoen. Then a cook ate brisket next to me, torturing us! 

25 Nov

I lost one of last night’s dreams because I have no idea what my scribbled note, meant to act as a memory catalyst, means: MACY’S DREAM BOOK

 23 Nov

I dreamt I bumped into David Kyle and Robert Silverberg at Worldcon. We hugged and wouldn’t let go, as if we knew it was the last time.

 23 Nov

I dreamt I visited a museum in darkness, deliberately so. We we meant to touch the statues and imagine them. Only then did the lights go on.

 22 Nov

I dreamt I stepped outside to discover someone had built a huge brick house on the lot next door, one I’d never noticed being constructed. 

21 Nov (more…)

So last night, when we realized we’d be cruising through Frederick, Maryland at around 8:00 p.m. without having had a chance to eat dinner first, we realized—hey, this is finally our chance to eat off Family Meal‘s dinner menu!

Irene and I have had many brunches and lunches there, starting last July right after they opened. But for a variety of reasons, dinner remained elusive. And so, as we neared Frederick on our way home from a day down county, we thought—gotta be Family Meal!

Turkey pot pie fritters

We’d had chicken pot pie fritters during our second lunch at Family Meal, but never the turkey ones. Glad I finally got to pop a few of these in my mouth. Best delivery method for pot pie filling ever. Better even than pot pies themselves! (more…)

I received an email notification Monday that Marvel Comics had sent me a mysterious FedEx package. What could it contain? I had no idea.

Marvel’s plans are usually a mystery to me, and I tend not to find out that early comics work of mine is being reprinted until it actually has been reprinted and I receive either a check or the printed book. So I had no idea what I’d find when I returned home last night and tore open the envelope.

Well, it turns out that an eight-page story I wrote starring The Vision, which was illustrated by Herb Trimpe and colored by my (at the time) future bride Irene Vartanoff …

… which first appeared in Avengers Annual # 6 way back in 1976 … (more…)

A college friend of my wife’s was visiting her son in Ellicott City last weekend, and so we all planned to get together for dinner Sunday night. But where? What restaurant would have not just good food but also the right ambiance for conversation?

I knew nothing of Ellicott City, and while Yelp can help, I wanted a recommendation a little more personal—after all, I must know someone who knows someone in that area—so I threw the question out to the Twitterverse, and the Twitterverse replied—get thee to The Rumor Mill.

Based on its site, The Rumor Mill, operated by Chef Matthew Milani, offered an intriguing menu, and seemed like a good fit for folks who want to linger … plus the restaurant had just landed one of its desserts on the cover of Howard County magazine. So we were in!

The Rumor Mill is a small plates restaurant, with all dishes meant for sharing, and we started out with an assortment of olives, warmed in herbed olive oil, and sweet potato fries, tossed with cinnamon butter. I didn’t think to photograph these because, well, all olives and fries look pretty much the same, right? They ended up being excellent, but since no pic would have done them justice, missing out on the visuals doesn’t matter. The rest of the meal, however … (more…)

When Carol Pinchefsky and Keith DeCandido recently appeared on Jim Freund’s WBAI radio show Hour of the Wolf, the topic at hand was Doctor Who. However, I—along with my durian—also became a topic for discussion.

The durian discussed—along with a jackfruit—made an appearance at Readercon in 2011. And for those who don’t know what either of those fabled fruits look like, behold! Here are the very fruits which I stored in my hotel room while waiting for the Friday night “Meet the Prose” party to begin.

If you’ve no experience with either durian or jackfruit and are wondering about their size, here for contrast is a photo of me with one of the durian I brought to a Balticon several years ago. (more…)

Back in 1993, once readers had digested a few issues of Science Fiction Age, we wanted to find out what they thought of it. (And we also, as you’ll see, wanted to at the same time nudge them to re-up their subscriptions.)

So out went a questionnaire …

… resulting in a suggestion with which no one could disagree. (more…)