Art Lasts

Hang out around science fiction authors long enough, and you get the sense that they're all crazy. John Scalzi claims that Donald Trump and the weather conspired to give him writer's block. Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin have cited similarly temperamental reasons for not finishing their popular series.…
August 6, 202016 Comments
Manmade Institutions

Manmade Institutions

Wherein the trade journal Marketing Science brings us further proof of the Pop Cult. H/t @Swordo9 on Tiwtter: The marketers who've pushed the concept of brand evangelism weren't just using a figure of speech. Man's innate religious impulse isn't being snuffed out. It's being captured and perverted by international corporations. Fitzsimons,…
August 5, 20208 Comments
It’s Not the Economy, Stupid

It’s Not the Economy, Stupid

It's about time someone noticed that Conservatives' exclusive fixation on economic arguments has lost them the culture war. Daniel Bendele writes: If the culture degrades even as the stock market climbs, there must be something else that we are missing?  If the rising tide is lifting all the boats, why…
August 4, 202011 Comments
Aircraft Data: YFS-100

Aircraft Data: YFS-100

YFS-100 Courtesy of ArtAnon Studios Technical Data Model number: YFS-100 Classification: Experimental atmospheric entry capable fighter Manufacturer: Browning Engineering Corporation Operator: Human Liberation Organization First deployment: CY 20 Crew: 1 pilot and 1 gunner/navigator in standard cockpit Length: 17 meters, wingspan 16.70 meters Weight: 101 metric tons Armor type: “1D” carbyne…
August 4, 20202 Comments
A Better Model

A Better Model

This generation chart was brought to my attention on Twitter: On the plus side, this model includes Generation Y. On the downside, it makes the common mistake of identifying Gen Y with the Millennials. A closer look also shows the tail end of Generation Jones appended to Generation X, the…
July 31, 202012 Comments
Pulp Mindset

Pulp Mindset

Author JD Cowan returns with a practical guide to navigating the sometimes stormy waters of NewPub at pulp speed! From the Amazon product description: Out with the Old, in with the NewPub Nobody reads anymore. In an age where audiences consume more art than ever before, books have remained irrelevant…
July 30, 2020

The Vanishing of Ambrose Bierce

To call Ambrose Bierce a writer would be an understatement. This famous--some might say infamous--author, journalist, solider, and adventurer left a mark on American culture comparable only to the likes of Poe, Lovecraft, Greeley, and Twain. His Devil's Dictionary skewered official and media doubletalk a century before the politically correct crowd's…
July 29, 20208 Comments
Dragon Con Interview

Dragon Con Interview

Recently the folks at Dragon Con interviewed a number of Dragon Award-winning authors, including me, They asked a series of writing-related questions via email and will be showcasing various authors' answers in a series of posts on their web site. Here are some highlights from their first post. Now in…
July 28, 2020
Christ Is King

Christ Is King

America is still a Christian country--at least sentimentally--as a poll at Unz indicates. The two real shockers in these results are Christians' relatively low favorability numbers among Hispanics and their surprisingly high rating with Democrats. If more than two-thirds of Dems are honestly positive toward Christianity, it would mean that…
July 27, 202024 Comments
America Judgment

When Did America Die?

Each day, more people wake up to the fact that, "How can we save America?" is a pointless question. America is already a corpse. Many of us have finally noticed that it's stopped twitching. A better question is, "When did America die?" Was it last year, when Trump signed the…
July 24, 202021 Comments