Here are a few podcasts I’ve discovered recently that I’ve enjoyed. Check ’em out.
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Science fiction author and podcaster
Here are a few podcasts I’ve discovered recently that I’ve enjoyed. Check ’em out.
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Okay, in case you couldn’t tell, I’m maybe just a little bit addicted to my new scanner. My latest spree of scanner-mania? Adding a few photos to my website’s bio page.
<-- Will grow up to enjoy scanning things.
When I was in high school, some guys I knew started a comic book. Since I was known as someone who could draw, they invited me to contribute something and provided me with some comic book paper. I gave it a shot, but my whole idea was way too ambitious for my first-ever comic, and I ran out of steam after only a few pages. If I had had any idea how much of a pain it is to draw and ink a comic by hand, I would never have set my first scene inside a completely dark bunker. I used up all my black markers (and all my patience) inking just a few panels. Though I do think this panel turned out pretty cool:
A few more newly-scanned old doodles:
Over the course of my life, I’ve spent a lot of time sitting in class and doodling, and I’ve saved some of the better doodles. For a while now, I’ve been thinking that I should start scanning them into my computer, in case something ever happens to the originals. I just had to fire up the scanner for some business-related stuff, and while I was at it I figured I’d scan in a few doodles. Here they are. These were all executed with Bic pens on notebook paper. (I digitally removed the blue lines.)
I was just perusing the website of artist Huan Tran, and I noticed that he’s posted a newly-tweaked version of the artwork that he did for my story “Blood of Virgins.” This new version has a different background, some additional details, and some fancy computer-generated lighting effects. I now have both versions up on my “Blood of Virgins” page.
When I woke up this morning, I could hear a strange noise coming from somewhere nearby.
It sounded like someone was shooting baskets, but there are no hoops around here. I spent an hour waking up, checking email, checking the news online, and the whole time there was this sort of thumping sound. What was it? I wondered. Garbage men? Crews doing yardwork? Finally I got curious and paced around the house to locate the source of the noise.
Which is when I discovered a robin redbreast repeatedly hurling himself against the sliding glass door that opens onto the back patio.
Near the door there’s a three-foot-tall potted tree, and this bird would fly up to the peak of the tree, then leap toward the living room, then bounce off the glass and flutter to the ground. He would peck at the glass a few times, then jump back up onto the tree and repeat the process. And he had been at this for at least an hour already. I couldn’t believe it.
For a while I just stood there, transfixed with a sort of weird fascination. It’s not every day that you get to see a robin redbreast so close and so obviously off his gourd.
Finally it occurred to me that he might injure himself by repeatedly bouncing off the glass, so I opened the door and shooed him away.
… and as soon as my back was turned, he started right up again.
I wondered what was going through this bird’s mind. Why did he want to get into my house so badly? I was half-tempted to let him in, just to see what he would do next, but then I thought he might be one of those rabid and/or zombie birds — judging by his behavior — so I decided maybe I shouldn’t. I was also tempted to feed him, since I felt like he ought to get something for his trouble, but I was afraid that would only encourage him.
I decided that the most diplomatic way to handle the situation would be to just close the blinds. Surely then, I thought, he would give up on the idea of getting through the glass. So I closed the blinds.
And the bird kept right on bouncing off the window.
Then I thought: Maybe he’s not trying to get through the glass after all. Maybe he’s trying to mate with his reflection? I don’t know.
Anyway, he was starting to seriously scuff the window, so I went outside and yelled and waved a lacrosse stick at him. He retreated to the branch of a tree up the hillside.
And as soon as I went inside, he went right back to hurling himself against the window.
I went outside and chased him off again. I threw rocks in his general direction until he fled from view. Then I went in and took a shower.
I just got out of the shower and he’s back AGAIN. What the hell?
You always hear these stories about people who, after a loved one dies, take in some stray animal that shows up at the house, and these people think that somehow the animal is their reincarnated loved one. I always thought that was silly, but watching the bizarre behavior of this bird makes me more sympathetic toward those people. If I had a loved one who had recently died and who had lived at this house, and then this weird bird shows up trying desperately so to get inside, well … it would be eerie.
Update: A quick Google search resolves this mystery.
I just got word that my short story “The Skull-Faced Boy,” which will be appearing later this year in the anthology The Living Dead (edited by John Joseph Adams), will also be appearing on the Pseudopod horror fiction podcast. Pseudopod did a really nice job with the last story of mine that they ran, “The Disciple,” so go check that out if you’re so inclined.
I was just glancing at the Escape Pod message board, and I noticed that the topic for my story “Blood of Virgins” has received the most page views of any story over there. I figured, well, it’s one of the oldest stories, so it’s had the most time to accrue views, and it was a somewhat controversial story, so that probably inflated the count, and it also probably gets a lot of visits from the same pervs who constantly barrage my website with google searches on variations of “blood sex video virgins first time.” So I didn’t think much of it. But then I noticed that my story “Save Me Plz” is right up there too, as the fourth most-viewed. “Save Me Plz” is relatively recent, was not particularly controversial, and is much less likely to draw in the sex-fiend traffic. So then I popped over to the Pseudopod message board and noticed that my story “The Disciple” has the most page views of any story over there. Okay, so that definitely seems to be a pattern. I hope it means that my stories are attracting a lot of interest from readers, but I’m really not sure how meaningful the “page views” thing is or how to interpret it. I do note that the second and third most-viewed topics on the Escape Pod board are for “The 43 Antarean Dynasties” by Mike Resnick and “Impossible Dreams” by Tim Pratt, both Hugo Award-winning stories, so that does seem to indicate that there’s at least some correlation between page views and how well a story is being received.
I recently got a note from Edmund R. Schubert, editor of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, letting me know that my story “Red Road” will be appearing in the magazine this summer, in an issue that will also feature a cover story by Peter S. Beagle (author of the The Last Unicorn, an old favorite of mine in both its novel and animated film incarnations, and one of the earliest books/movies I can remember reading/watching).
Speaking of Peter S. Beagle, I see that the long-awaited PodCastle fantasy fiction podcast has finally launched (from the folks who brought you the Escape Pod and Pseudopod podcasts, both of which have featured my fiction in the past), and that the first episode is Peter S. Beagle’s story “Come Lady Death.”
I updated the page for my story “The Skull-Faced Boy” with the newly-announced table of contents for the anthology The Living Dead, which will feature stories by Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, and many, many other well-known writers.
My grandfather Roger Barr passed away early this morning at the age of 98. He was my mom’s father, and was my last surviving grandparent. He was being cared for by my uncle Steve (his son) and aunt Denice — both medical professionals — and was still sharp and good-humored in his final days. Yesterday […]