"Just imagine a number of men in chains, and all condemned to die, some of whom each day have their throats cut before the eyes of others. Those who remain see their own condition in that of their fellows and, observing one another with grief and without hope, await their turn. That is the image of the human condition." -- Blaise Pascal (died 1662)

Probably Why We Watch TV
Posted inBlather

Ten Contemplations on the Facebook Like Icon

1) Interesting. Everybody who "likes" me seems to be a latex glove fetishist. 2) I'm not pulling over, hitcher. I'm stepping on the gas. Oh no. Get out of the way! 3) Who's got your nose? 4) If this hand were bearing an unbuttoned sleeve, everything you liked would seem ...dirty. 5) The universal symbol for social approval in the 21st Century is a dismembered hand. I like that. But it's kind of overkill. Surely just a single digit would do. 6) A grammatical sin is committed by our passive acceptance of this plurality of "likes" -- that is, the…
January 30, 2013Posted inBlather
Posted inArnzen News

Arnzstigation Days end January 31st

I am honored by this heart-warmingly weird tribute that surprisingly erupted as a meme over on Facebook yesterday. Raw Dog Screaming Press is sponsoring a fun creative celebration called "Arnzstigation Days" in support of our successful funding of The Fridge of the Damned (for which all backers receive a copy of my upcoming story idea lighter fluid, Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side). It's basically a creative writing challenge and a call for memories of weirdness we may have shared. If anything from my classes, workshops or posts in the Instigation department of this website (or the prompts in…
January 24, 2013Posted inArnzen News
Posted inAmbulations

Dog Star’s New Title: Resnick’s “Miracle”

Happy to see the expansion of Dog Star Books -- a hot new SF line put out by one of my longstanding publishers, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and edited by my former co-editor from Many Genres), Heidi Ruby Miller. They've just released the cover of a new book by the prolific SF author, Mike Resnick: SUMMARY: The best way to learn about an alien species is not only to live among them, but to become them in both physical form and function, but could a human really learn to think like an alien, and at what cost to his humanity?…
January 22, 2013Posted inAmbulations1 Comment