I just broke 50,000 words. The little graph shows me at 50%, but I am far, far past the halfway point.  This first draft may manage to hit the 65,000 mark, but I wouldn't bet on it. The past couple of weeks the writing has been tough.  I've managed to force myself to write at least 500 words each day,... read more »

I say we lock them both up. (Screen capture from Yahoo News.)

There's a meme going around the blogosphere right now that begins with: The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. I've also seen a variant: According to "The Big Read", the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list. It then gives this... read more »

Mercury Magazine has published the Hebrew translation of "Tabloid Reporter to the Stars."  This is the first translation of one of my stories that I've seen.  I can't read a word of it.  I think I've made a pretty good guess as to which characters spell out my name, but I could be wrong.

Last weekend, I went to scenic Eden, Utah, for a family reunion for descendants of Arthur and Lenora Erekson, my deceased maternal grandparents.  All their living descendants (plus spouses, where applicable) managed to make it to the reunion.  And all fifty-three of us are in this picture: (No, Waldo is not in there.)

I mentioned earlier that I did another interview at CONduit.  Actually, it was more of a guest appearance.  And now it can be told: I was the guest author on this week's Writing Excuses podcast.  It was a lot of fun to record, because Brandon, Howard, and Dan are very knowledgeable and funny people.  Download it and listen.  If you... read more »

I've been tagged by neutronjockey to fulfil the following assignment: To participate, you grab the closest book, go to page 123, find the fifth sentence, and blog it. Then tag five people. The closest book was in a pile of stuff on the couch in my computer room: The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich and Powerful Really Died, by... read more »

According to the Nebula Award rules, a work of 40,000 words or more is considered a novel. As of today, Unforgettable is over 40,000 words.

I never got around to blogging about attending CONduit back in May.  It was fun to see the usual suspects there. My reading went very well (especially in comparison to last year's CONduit reading, at which I didn't bother to read.  My friend Scott Danielson was the only person who showed up, so we just sat around and talked.)  This... read more »

Apparently I never got around to blogging about the Codex Halloween Contest last year.  The Halloween Contest is the longest-running contest run by the Codex Writers, with last year's being the fourth annual contest.  While I have been rather successful in the annual Codexian Idol contest, and even won the Fairy Tale contest and the Chinese Menu contest, I had... read more »