A third iris variety popped today. It was another one of our garden veterans, rather than a new one we planted last year.

Though I’m only sharing a single perfect flower here, we’ll have about 16 of them from these particular rhizomes before the blooming period is done.

I’ve created a flickr set of the iris pics so far for those who feel moved to follow along. (Why should the daffodils get all the love?)

If you’re not interested in gardening neepery, you might have to avert your eyes the next week or so, as I’ll be sharing more flower photos as the buds begin to pop.

Here’s the second iris to show its face in the garden, somewhat similar to the one I posted yesterday, but tending toward purple rather than brown. I’m hoping for two more varieties to burst tomorrow, one yellow, the other white, with the salmon-colored ones coming over the weekend.

We’ll probably be visiting Exline Iris Garden Sunday to check out their display—because it’s never too early to start thinking about the 2011 garden!

I went out after dinner and deadheaded another 217 daffodils, bringing the total snipped to 4,973, with no more than a dozen left. Daffodil season is now basically done, and it’s time for the garden to yield to other stars.

It’s interesting how the twin blizzards affected both the high point and the end of the daffodil season this year. Due to the blanket of snow, sometimes reaching four feet, the daffodils were insulated from winter, and kept warm, and ended up hitting their peak about 10 days earlier than usual. The same thing happened at the end of the season, since we normally have daffodils until May 15, and here it is the 5th and we have only a few left. I’m assuming (and hoping) it all returns to normal next year.

The bamboo, on the other hand, was unaffected by the snow, and began to send up new shoots around the same time it always does.

With daffodil season ending, we’re now at the start of iris season. We already had many iris in the ground, but last year added several hundred more, not all of which will bloom their first year. One of our veterans, though, has just begun its display.

I’ll share the other varieties as they begin to burst. (more…)

We headed over to Berkeley Springs last night, halfway (sort of) between our West Virginia home and the Frostburg, Maryland stomping grounds of Sydney and Andy Duncan, and had dinner at Panorama at the Peak restaurant (which happens to be the best restaurant in town). It felt good, as Andy put it, to for once see each other without wearing name tags.

There was plenty of great food—braised lamb shank for me, North Carolina crab cakes for Irene, West Virginia pan-fried trout for the Duncans—and great conversation.

We talked about blizzards (because whenever two or more gather, weather must be discussed, right?), NaNoWriMo, whether or not I should finally attend the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Alzheimer’s, cluttering, Readercon, our writing (of course!), Eddie Lawrence’s novelty record “The Old Philosopher” (which I mangled badly trying to explain), Sydney’s recent sale to an anthology of Alfred Hitchcock poetry, and much more.

Here are the happy wanderers after we cleaned our plates and paid our bill.

Do we look sated in both mind and body? I think that we do.

Today has turned into a day of many firsts. (And the day isn’t even halfway done.)

The first iris of the season is almost completely open. The first hummingbird moth was spotted poking about in our annuals. And, making us smile the most, the first box turtle woke from its winter’s sleep and started wandering our garden.

As soon as I snapped its photo, the shy thing padded off to hide under the deck where it could avoid the paparazzi. But considering how many times we saw turtles last year, we have hopes it will be back … along with its cousins.

Here are all of my April 2010 dream tweets, collected in one place because they seem so much more bizarre when piled one atop the other this way. (But also because it’s so much easier to determine—according to Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s theory—which of you are now eligible for SFWA membership.)

Welcome to another month my my surreal subconscious.

I dreamt that Alex Irvine called to tell me he was getting married, which seemed weird because … in real life, he already is. Isn’t he? 8:24 AM Apr 30th

I dreamt I discovered a huge Jack Kirby Tarzan pencil drawing in my art collection, and then searched fruitlessly for matting material. 8:19 AM Apr 30th

I dreamt a writer friend of mine called to tell me that his Hulk miniseries had finally been made, and would air from 2:00-8:00 this Sunday. 8:14 AM Apr 30th

I dreamt I watched Head Over Keels, a B&W movie starring Brando, Borgnine, and Muni as three Navy guys trying to get to a Sinatra concert. 8:12 AM Apr 30th

I dreamt I interviewed an old woman on how her famous actress sister got started. She said it was by sending in Bugs Bunny cartoon ideas. 8:08 AM Apr 30th

I dreamt a Glee/American Idol mashup in which the characters competed in front of the judges. Sadly, I had no memory of the songs on waking. 8:51 AM Apr 29th

I dreamt I wandered out barefoot into deep snow wearing just a bathrobe. Confused cows wandered up to look at me as I stumbled farther away. 8:44 AM Apr 29th

I dreamt I was at a banquet where the Oscars were being handed out, and sat with Harrison Ford. He was, surprisingly, smiling and friendly. 8:40 AM Apr 29th

I dreamt my ship was rammed by another because we wouldn’t let its passengers board. I escaped — with my lifesized statue of Cory Doctorow. 8:36 AM Apr 29th

I dreamt I was in a Law & Order courtroom as a trial went bad. As Det. Lupo was dragged away, I ran off to tell Lt. Van Buren and get help. 8:33 AM Apr 28th (more…)

I just found out today via Mark Evanier that writer/artist/editor Bill DuBay died two weeks ago on April 15. I don’t think I ever met DuBay during my years as a comics pro, but I was certainly familiar with his work from my years as a comics fan.

I devoured his writing and editing at Warren Publishing in the pages of Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella in the ’70s, but what I remember most (which I’m guessing probably wouldn’t have pleased him) is a series of humorous strips he wrote and drew for the program books of Phil Seuling’s 1972 and 1973 New York Comic Art Conventions.

These two pages, starring DuBay himself, gave me a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the world of publishing and comics I had no idea I would eventually enter.

(more…)

Let’s step into the Wayback Machine, shall we?

The photo below, taken at South Shore High School by pal Barry Chaiken, shows me a few months before my 18th birthday, just as I was about to head off to SUNY Buffalo. It had been scheduled to appear in our high-school yearbook along with other casual student photos until (of this I am convinced, do not attempt to dissuade me) I refused to make an edit our faculty advisor requested to one of my poems.

I’d already been writing for years, and had by then been rejected from F&SF, Analog, and all of the other fine (and not so fine) magazines of the day, many of which no longer exist. Marvel Comics, my wife, Clarion, my son, Science Fiction Age, and the Syfy Channel (along with so many other things) were all waiting for me in the future, hiding around a bend where I could not see them.

Who knows what else waits just out of sight on the winding road ahead?

In addition to the Ray Bradbury interview I already told you about, the Spring 2010 issue of The Paris Review also contains an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction writer John McPhee.

Over the course of his lengthy interview, McPhee, a longtime writer for The New Yorker, offered up two anecdotes I particularly liked.

First came one that shines a spotlight on the choices those of us who are both writers and editors must make:

Bingham had been a writer-reporter at The Reporter magazine. So he comes to work at The New Yorker, to be a fact editor. Within the first two years there, he goes out to lunch with his old high-school friend Gore Vidal. And Gore says, What are you doing as an editor, Bobby? What happened to Bob Bingham the writer? And Bingham says, Well, I decided that I would rather be a first-rate editor than a second-rate writer. And Gore Vidal draws himself up and says, And what is wrong with a second-rate writer?

Not at all a retort I would have expected out of Gore Vidal, whose ego seemed such that I’m surprised the phrase “second-rate” was in his vocabulary.

Then came an interesting metaphor relating to style over content, and polish over substance:

I got my thirty thousand words done, and then I finished the thing over Christmas. It has a really good structure and was technically fine. But it had no life in it at all. One person wrote a note on it that said, You demonstrated you know how to saddle a horse. Now go find the horse.

You’ll have to excuse me now. I think I’d better go find a horse.

Back in 1976, Gerry Conway wrote the introductory memo below laying down the law as the newly installed Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. A lot of what he had to say made sense, because Marvel was a train wreck as far as scheduling was concerned, always falling victim to what was then known as the Dreaded Deadline Doom. But Gerry wasn’t around to see all his plans implemented, because he was only in his position for three weeks.

Or was it four? Or maybe even six?

I’m no longer sure, because though I’ve been remembering his term as lasting only three weeks, I’ve heard others who are equally as sure insist that it was one or the other of those two additional time periods. So until someone turns up further documentation, I’m keeping an open mind (and an elastic memory).

One thing I am sure of, however, is that though this memo is dated March 12, 1974 … that really wasn’t when it was written. After all, I hadn’t started working for Marvel yet by that date, and neither had Gerry. Since it was packed away in my files between a memo from me to Stan Lee dated February 12, 1976, and a letter from Gerry to Len Darvin at the Comics Code dated March 15, 1976, I can safely assume that the date on the memo is off by two years. (more…)