If you’re thinking of getting copies of my books, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!
I’ve been recommending this essay for years to every writer I know. And it’s free to read online…
I compiled a list of fun facts about this brilliant mathematician after reading two biographies. The oddest little things stayed with me, and here they are…
I’m back with capsule reviews of the ongoing “advent calendar” of stories published this season by WMG Publishing, as edited by writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, this writing project delivers a short holiday story to your email inbox each day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, 40 stories in all…
Well, it happened again. I went to check out one of my books on Amazon, only to discover the image of the paperback cover had been replaced by a picture of mens workout pants. This has happened to me a lot in my years of selling books on Amazon. It’s always pants, for some reason. And no one can ever tell why it’s pants…
I’ve long been a fan of the prolific writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who writes romance, mystery, SFF, and incisive nonfiction on the craft and business of writing. She and her equally prolific writer spouse Dean Wesley Smith offer the best craft courses for writers I’ve seen online. (I’ve taken 9 of them—I think.) For the last five years, Rusch has offered her Annual Holiday Spectacular, a kind of advent calendar that ticks off the days from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, delivering a short holiday story to your email inbox of varying lengths and genres…
I have a post up on SleuthSayers today, which is the day after Thanksgiving here in the United States. Since it’s been a busy week, I’m repurposing a post I wrote back in 2010 for another site. I’ve always liked this article, and I’m glad to have reclaimed it and updated it slightly for a new audience. Here’s how it opens:
Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the United States. But if you happen to be an American mathematician, yesterday was more than just turkey and families. It was Fibonacci Day, so named because the month and date—in American notation, anyway—expressed the first four digits in the famous number sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3. (Oh, to have been alive on 11/23/58!) To talk about that, I’m repurposing an article I wrote years ago for a website that has since gone dark.
Words are about to fail me. Watch: The writer Avram Davidson (1923-1993) was one of the most inventive writers of all time. See? That sentence stinks, because it really doesn’t convey just what an incredible stylist and prose master the man was. He’s probably best known for writing short stories in the realms of science fiction and fantasy, mostly for magazines that modern readers would call the pulps. But he also wrote mystery fiction and novels.
I’m honored this month to be a guest on a podcast devoted to his work, The Avram Davidson Universe. You can check out that episode right here…
Back in 2021, a lovely company here in town crafted a special tea linked to my wife’s book, We Gather Together. The tea is back as a limited edition this fall. If you never got a chance to try it, you ought to jump on the opportunity now. I have no idea how much tea is available, or how long this short run will last.
On the surface, the book is the surprising story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a woman magazine editor who lobbied several presidents before Lincoln finally acceded to her request to make Turkey Day a national holiday. But the deeper story is one of gratitude, and gives Americans a blueprint for a more inclusive Thanksgiving, sans the mythical, problematic Pilgrim-Wampanoag encounter of 1621.
The earliest celebrations of Thanksgiving in New England were distinctly regional affairs. This tea has a South Appalachian ingredient, yaupon, that has a fascinating history in its own right…
My wife, Denise Kiernan, did a somewhat last-minute interview this AM with Eastern Panhandle Talk, the morning talk radio and TV show for WRNR in Martinsburg, WV. It was a full 30-minute chat, mostly on the topic of We Gather Together, her 2020 book about the creation of the Thanksgiving holiday through the efforts of a crusading magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale.
This is the second time she’s appeared on this program. The last time was back in…
Please note: This website uses affiliate links, typically for books or products mentioned on the site. If you click on one of these links and purchase anything, the owner of this site may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
