Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering? (Vengeance Is Mine Edition)
Sorry for the recent post drought. I know how many of you can't make it through the day without knowing what, if anything, I'm pondering. Sadly, far too much of…
Can Anyone Write Rampant Animal Sex Prose?
In response to this year's Bad Sex Award (given to Nancy Huston's Infrared), Rick Gekoski at the Guardian proposes a Good Sex Award, though he acknowledges that it might never get…
Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering?
My review of Jim Murdoch's novel Milligan and Murphy is up on the Dactyl Review site. Given that my review is mixed, I must say that Mr. Murdoch is an awfully good sport. Nerds…
Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering?
I just finished the first draft of a review of a well-written but at the same time frustrating pastiche of Samuel Beckett's Mercier and Camier. You'll hear more about that in…
Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering?
I just mailed off five free signed copies of Dismantle the Sun to some lucky so-and-sos at librarything.com. Of the five winners, two are residents of rural Michigan, and one of…
The Lingering Pleasure of Ambiguity
Lee Rourke, editor of 3AM, on the pleasure of the ambiguous ending: It's no surprise that most novels are ruined by their forced "endings"; by our collective desire for them to…
Reading A Bad Book and the “Page 99” Test
John Warner, a.k.a. the Biblioracle at the Chicago Tribune, talks about quitting on bad books: I used to be one of those people who refused to give up on a book.…
Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering?
To take my mind off of mounting car repair bills, here's what I'm pondering: Tom Tomorrow encapsulates almost everything that bothered me about the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. True, much…
Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering?
A thousand apologies for skipping a day's pondering, but my energies have been focused on a screenplay version of an audio drama I did a couple of years ago called Denial.…
Very Bad Poetry, Captain
As those of you who read this blog regularly (Hi, Mom) know, I'm a sucker for a bad movie. Bad books, by contrast, fail to slay me. I would no…