The Nebulas Awards banquet was held last night in San Jose, and usually, I’d have been there. But this year, I wanted to attend the the March George Formby Society Convention in Blackpool, and so something had to give—which meant the Nebulas as well as this year’s World Horror Convention in New Orleans were out.

So I amused myself this weekend by looking back two years to my photos from 2003 Nebula Awards weekend and sharing them on Twitter, but thought I should gather them together here as well.

So get ready to flashback to a gentler, more innocent time …

Scott Edelman (with butterfly) and Bill Shunn

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Earlier this week I shared a photo taken in high school which shows me wearing a tutu and a black-and-white sequined bra—a photo which once seen cannot be unseen and therefore deserves some kind of trigger warning before you click.

While flipping through old albums in search of that photo, I came across a couple of other images which feature an equally unrecognizable while also bizarre younger me. These were taken when I worked in the Marvel Bullpen, and were used in the fake ad below which appeared in an issue of Crazy magazine.

Behold!

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Next restaurant, which reinvents itself three times a year, releases a video to promote each new menu. Sometimes, as with its video for The Hunt, you get a good idea what you’ll be eating while there. But the just-released video for the new Vegan menu, which launches tonight, is a bit more … enigmatic.

Enigmatic … but hilarious.

After having watched that, I have absolutely no idea what Next will have in store for me when I sit down at my Kitchen Table at the end of the month.

One thing I do know, however—it makes me want to go on a heist with those guys!

I picked up a Fitbit Flex over the weekend to track the level of my activity and the quality of my sleep, and have been wearing the device on my wrist 24/7 since around 6:00 p.m. Saturday. The chart below reveals disturbing news about what my Monday was like, even though I logged 10,560 steps.

I was sedentary for 12 hours and six minutes! Since I already know that staying seated during the day is a killer, that’s not good news.

As you can see, the ratio of sedentary to active so far this morning isn’t quite as unbalanced, but I’m sure that by day’s end, it’ll be looking a lot like yesterday.

So what’s a guy with a deskjob to do? Am I doomed?

Apparently, the Internet trolls have their knives out for John Scalzi tonight. (But is there ever a night during which the Internet trolls don’t have their knives out for John Scalzi?)

After he posted a dashing photo of himself wearing Rachel Caine‘s red shoes at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, “The sexist dipshits are passing around the picture of me in high heels, as if I did something shameful. Because they are sexist dipshits.”

So to give those sexist dipshits a distraction that might take some heat off John, and to show I’ve always been willing to do pretty much anything and not care what anyone else might think, may I present—

Me as a high school junior. Wearing a tutu. And a black-and-white sequined bra. A black-and-white sequined bra that needed to be heavily stuffed with tissues.

You’re welcome.

I have an extremely active dream life, and those that I remember I share each morning on Twitter. Once a month, I harvest them from the rest of my tweets and share them here. So below is what went through my sleeping mind during April.

My guest stars included Elaine Stritch, Jamie Foxx, John Barrowman, Woody Allen, Ray Bradbury, Paul Newman, Mad Men’s Roger Sterling, and more.

Step into last month’s subconscious …

APRIL 2013



I dreamt that as I headed to an opera house, I saw ‪@doctorow rushing the other way, having forgotten his ticket. We agreed to speak later. 30 Apr

I dreamt I was part of a drug deal gone bad, but somehow was able to get away and hide in an alley until it all blew over. 28 Apr

I dreamt I was with ‪@mrbelm at a party run by the people behind that world’s 50 best restaurants list, but couldn’t get to any of the food! 28 Apr

I dreamt I was carrying my father’s coffin from the hearse to the gravesite, and one of the pallbearers was Mad Men’s Roger Sterling.

 28 Apr

I dreamt I was on a courtesy computer in a hotel lobby with ‪@amelia_beamer, searching fruitlessly for an article I’d hoped to show her.

 27 Apr

I dreamt I attended Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutants, and all around me, kids pranked each other. I never found out my own power though.

 26 Apr

I dreamt that after my waitress brought my entree, I noticed she was — Elaine Stritch! So I jumped up and hugged her and wouldn’t let go.

 25 Apr

I dreamt a man with a razor tried to mug me on a deserted nighttime street, but I kept spinning out of his reach and eventually got away.

 25 Apr

I dreamt I was given a tour of an extremely odd museum, about which I remember little, save for the surreal room of deflated balloons.

 25 Apr

I dreamt I spotted a kidnapper with his child victim in a bus station. When he seemed distracted, I tackled him and held until police came.

 24 Apr

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My short story “Things That Never Happened” will soon appear in Postscripts #30/31 from PS Publishing. The issue, which carries not just a number, but also the title Memoryville Blues, will be out once the signature sheets pass through the hands of all the contributors and make their way back to the publisher.

I’m not sure how long that whole process will take, but while we wait, check out the cover below (which might not be the final design).

Here’s the complete Table of Contents:

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The 2013 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants has just been released, and I’ve been to four of them. I hope to hit a couple more real soon—especially The Fat Duck, which is a 2014 goal of mine either before or after the London Worldcon.

Click through on restaurants 5, 9, 14, and 15 to see what I thought of them … and prepare to salivate.

1. El Celler de Can Roca,Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
2. Noma, Copenhagen
4. Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain
5. Eleven Madison Park, New York City
6. D.O.M., Sao Paulo, Brazil
7. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London
8. Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain
9. Steirereck Restaurant, Vienna, Austria
10. Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
11. Per Se, New York City, USA
12. Frantzén/Lindeberg, Stockholm, Sweden
13. The Ledbury, London, UK
14. Astrid y Gastón, Lima, Peru
15. Alinea, Chicago, USA
16. L’Arpège, Paris, France
17. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico
18. Le Chateaubriand, Paris, France
19. Le Bernardin, New York City, USA
20. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan
21. Attica, Melbourne, Australia
22. Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo, Japan
23. L’Astrance, Paris, France
24. L’Atelier Saint-Germain de Joël Robuchon, Paris, France
25. Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem, Belgium
26. Quique Dacosta, Dénia, Spain
27. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
28. Mirazur, Menton, France
29. Daniel, New York City, USA
30. Aqua, Wolfsburg, Germany
31. Biko, Mexico City, Mexico
32. Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand
33. The Fat Duck, Bray, UK
34. Fäviken, Järpen, Sweden
35. Oud Sluis, Sluis, Netherlands
36. Amber, Hong Kong, China
37. Vila Joya, Albufeira, Portugal
38. Restaurant Andre, Singapore
39. 8 1/2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana, Hong Kong, China
40. Combal.Zero, Rivoli, Italy
41. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italia
42. Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland
43. Mr & Mrs Bund, Shanghai, China
44. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain
45. Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
46. Mani, São Paulo, Brasil
47. The French Laundry, Yountville, USA
48. Quay, Sydney, Australia
49. Septime, Paris, France
50. Central, Lima, Perú

Eleven Madison Park’s jump from #10 to #5 makes me think I’ve got to head back for another try, as my underwhelmed reaction continues to trouble me. But next time, it’ll be dinner instead of lunch.

So—how many have YOU managed to hit?

The chameleon-like Next restaurant releases an enigmatic video with each new cuisine it serves (check out The Hunt and Kyoto, for example), so those of us who love the place wonder what we’ll see in support of the new Vegan menu, which begins May 8.

Over on Twitter, Christian Seel just shared a screen grab from that coming video, which has me wondering …

… what does that image have to do with a Vegan cuisine?

My guess? Actor Stephen Bernacki is about to strip off his work clothes, toss away that briefcase, abandon the urban lifestyle, and go back to the land.

Can’t wait to see whether I’m right. And, as usual, can’t wait to get back to Next!

Next Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, which means that if you wander into a comics shop on May 4, 2013, you might just walk out with a comic book written … by me!

But how is that possible? I haven’t written any comics in decades. How could I possibly have anything in a comic handed out on Free Comic Book Day?

Blame Thanos!

Bill Hall of The Daily Kirby let me know today (beating out Marvel Comics, who’s yet to alert me) that my back-up story from Logan’s Run #6, which starred Thanos and Drax the Destroyer, will be reprinted in Infinity, Marvel’s giveaway for Free Comic Book Day. All because Thanos is now a big deal due to his appearance at the end of The Avengers movie.

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