In a fit of rage against working on my syllabi for the coming term, I took a snippet from John Scalzi’s novel Old Man’s War (chapter 9 for those playing at home) and, well, Chaucer’d it. That is, I took Scalzi’s text and translated it into Chaucer’s dialect. Details follow …
Not too long ago I decided I was unhappy with my laptop when it comes to writing. It isn’t a bad laptop — a lightweight, compact, fairly recent Sony Vaio — but there are things about it I don’t like. Like a hot lap, for one. Waiting for it to …
One of my favorite genre magazines is Shimmer Magazine. General Editor Beth Wodzinski and her staff have truly terrific tastes — they’ve bought three of my pieces so far (the latest of which was commissioned) — and the art direction, by Mary Robinette Kowal, is simply second to none. Seriously. …
A Medieval Astronomer? I’m a medievalist. Not one of those dress-up-and-play-swords folks, but an academic who specializes in the Middle Ages. I study medieval castles; I don’t want to live in one.* So it surprises some folks to hear that in the summer of 2007 I became one of the …