About the header images

I took the header images for this blog from various sources and do not know their copyright status. If you see an image to which you you hold the copyright, or whose copyright holder you think you know, please contact me.

When a Book Can Change You Forever

In the acknowledgements for the 10th anniversary edition of American Gods, Neil Gaiman mentions “the inimitable Harlan Ellison, whose collective Deathbird Stories burned itself into the back of my hea

Dirt Soufflé

One of the nicest things you can do for the vegetables in your garden is make them a dirt soufflé by double digging, as outlined in John Jeavons’ indispensable How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruit

Space Opera and the Siege of Vienna: the Archetypal Perspective

In their 2003 article How Shit Became Shinola: Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera, David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer defined modern space opera as “colorful, dramatic, large scale science

Unheard symphony

The catastrophe in Japan brings this poem to mind. I wrote it following the Northridge earthquake of 1994, when I lived in Tujunga, about 15 miles from the epicenter.
The Music of the Spheres
I.
I

Crunchy Bits