Out of Ambit
Writing
The Starship and the Upstairs Flat
There is a moment in Sherlock‘s second-season episode “The Hounds of Baskerville” in which the world’s first and only consulting detective is attempting to get to grips with the fact that his senses, the tools of his trade, utterly reliable for all his past life, have apparently turned on him and are no longer to [...]
The Affair of the Black Armbands
I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes for many, many years. I don’t even really remember when I first started reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal tales of the world’s first and greatest consulting detective, though it has to have been fairly early – probably when I was twelve or thirteen. There is nothing unusual about [...]
Up against the wall (or actually, on it)
This is such a cool thing. Some months back I had a nice email from Melissa Elliott, who’s the Senior Librarian in charge of Young Adult Services at the Burbank Public Library in southern California. (You know, as in “Beautiful Downtown Burbank.”) She was asking whether they could use a quote from one of the [...]
For the Solstice: “Invictus”
In the dimness he woke and knew it was too late. Morning never came so late unless the world was ending. Fortunately, he knew what to do about that. He blinked and ruffled his feathers, looking around. This was his place. Surrounding a patch of grass were two holly trees, a pine, a cypress whose [...]
Dinner for One
A peculiar thing happens in a number of European countries, mostly (but not all) German-speaking, on or around New Year’s Eve. The TV stations begin showing the same brief comedy sketch again and again. What’s truly unusual about this is that the sketch is in English — recorded nearly 50 years ago in front of [...]
About the blogger
30+ years in print, 50+ novels, assorted TV and movie work, the NYT Bestseller List a few times, blah blah blah. Also: the Young Wizards series, 1983-2010 and beyond.
That said, sometimes I want to talk about anything but writing. This is one place where that happens.
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