My 2022 reading resolution: Read or DNF every novel that has won a Hugo or a Nebula award, and acquire all the good ones. So March is usually the time where people get tired of their new year’s resolutions and either give them up entirely or put them on the back burner for a while.… Continue reading Reading Resolution Update: March
Tag: Thoughts and Reflections
Thoughts after reading the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
So I recently finished reading the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, and I have a lot of thoughts on it. I’ll do my best to avoid major spoilers, but I’ll probably end up spoiling some of it, so I’ll mark those parts as best as I can. Overall, I can say that it started… Continue reading Thoughts after reading the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
P is for Parenthood
I’m currently in the process of writing the second edition of my newsletter exclusive, Science Fiction from A to Z, adding a bunch of new chapters and rewriting all of the old ones. For a blog post this week, I thought I’d share one of the new chapters. Let me know what you think! I… Continue reading P is for Parenthood
Post-Christmas Update
Christmas was great! My parents came over from Iowa on the train, and stayed with us for a few days. My wife’s brother also came down from the Salt Lake area. He has a bazillion board games, so we had a ton of fun playing with him. Before I had kids, I never really got… Continue reading Post-Christmas Update
4 AM Thoughts
Violence is not speech and speech is not violence. If you conflate the two, you will invariably use violence to quell the speech that you most need to hear. This is because the thing you need the most is usually in the place you least want to look. With regards to Jordan Peterson.
This is why Meta is going to fail
So while Mrs. Vasicek and I were in the theater for the first time since the pandemic, watching the trailers before Dune, we saw this commercial for Facebook’s new Meta rebrand: Since the theater was almost completely empty, we were already having fun by making snarky commentary. And when this commercial came on, it was… Continue reading This is why Meta is going to fail
DUNE!
So Mrs. Vasicek and I saw the new Dune movie in theaters last weekend, and let me just say, it was awesome in every sense of the word! Speaking as someone who’s read the novel three times and fervently believes it to be the most perfect science fiction book ever written, this movie did not… Continue reading DUNE!
Navigating Woke SF, Part 4: Götterdämmerung
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation today, after his sexual harrassment scandal that has seen an overwhelming number of women come forward. As tempted as I am to dive into the politics of this story, I bring it up only to provide context for this: Yeah, I’m cringing too. For the last several years—arguably, since… Continue reading Navigating Woke SF, Part 4: Götterdämmerung
Navigating Woke SF, Part 1: Short Story Markets and Author Blacklists
Last year, I had a short story published in the anthology Again, Hazardous Imaginings: More Politically Incorrect Science Fiction. Not only was it one of my highest paying short story sales to date, but it also made it onto the Tangent Online 2020 Recommended Reading List with a *** rating, their highest tier. Only 13… Continue reading Navigating Woke SF, Part 1: Short Story Markets and Author Blacklists
So… what now? Where do we go from here?
For the last several months, I’ve struggled to put my thoughts together into something that I felt was appropriate for this blog. Even though I allow myself to be political here, I’m also keenly aware that I have many readers who might enjoy my books and yet disagree with my politics. I don’t want my… Continue reading So… what now? Where do we go from here?