Since every billionaire is a policy failure, what does that make a trillionaire?

Oh, this is wonderful!

I hope you'll come along and eavesdrop next weekend when I pontificate on panels at SFWA's Quasar event. On Saturday, November 15th, I'll be on the panel "Centering Wellness as Creators," then on Sunday, November 16th, I'll take part in "It's a Scream: Writing Horror Across the Ages." Join us!

I went to bed yesterday while thinking of the final scene of the new story, and woke in the night with a complete sentence which needs to be inserted there having popped into my head. Thanks as always, my subconscious collaborator!

Ended the night editing down the first 10 minutes of raw audio from my recent chat with Alaya Dawn Johnson to remove anything which would prevent you from ingesting her wit and wisdom on next week's episode of Eating the Fantastic. I hope you'll decide to join us at the table! pod.link/1083737796

I can't believe Chuck Schumer begged me for money after his embarrassing behavior during the NYC mayoral campaign, but he did — and this is how I replied.

Today in Donald Trump's state-sponsored terrorism.

This afternoon's treadmill TV took me through the first half of It: Chapter Two, a movie about repressed memories which surprisingly brought back a somewhat repressed memory of my own — how I'd once tried to get Stephen King to write an essay about why his SF novels kept getting marketed as horror.

The Bizarro Circus of Madness anthology — which contains my oddball short story "Oh, to Be a Wooden Ship, Sailing an Endless Sea!" — is now available for your entertainment and edification. And if you're already paying for Kindle Unlimited — it's free! www.amazon.com/Bizarro-Circ...

This afternoon's revision session added 298 words to the story in progress, bringing me within striking distance of the final scene. One more session might even finish up this draft. But I suspect it will be two.

How could I have forgotten it's my late cousin Herb's birthday? Actually, my second cousin, or first cousin once removed, depending on how you keep track of such familial relationships. He was my father's father's brother's son, and here's a photo of Herb with my Dad when they were both about 16.

Today's mail delivered the edition of Ulysses recommended by @jonnysemicolon.bsky.social, James Joyce Society president, for the nine-session reading group he's running with Scott Shepherd, co-director of the upcoming Elevator Repair Service adaptation at The Public Theater. My homework begins!

Donald Trump is terrorizing America. wapo.st/3WHpzZz

Your context-free comic book panel of the day.

"It’s fair to say that 80 percent of the world’s problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won’t let go." nymag.com/intelligence...

Last night’s earworm which popped into my head whenever I woke was — "Tiger Rag." youtu.be/h-d4PlcAGb4

Forty-five years ago today, two significant events occurred. Reagan was elected president. I thought he'd be the most disastrous president of my lifetime. And oh, how wrong I was! That election also caused me to join the ACLU, because I knew our liberties needed defending. And oh, how right I was!

Today's treadmill entertainment played catchup with 2017's It: Chapter One. I read the 1986 King novel the year it came out, of course, and figured it was about time I finally saw the film. I'll withhold my opinion on the splitting of the book's interwoven narrative until after It: Chapter Two.

This afternoon's revision session took me a few pages deeper into making sense of the first draft, adding 232 words. The story seems to be coming together, both text and subtext, and I am pleased.

"What do you do with a life like his, at its end? Shiver at the thought of it, mostly. Bury him in a salt cavern. Bury him face down." defector.com/dick-cheney-...

"Some folks are so corrupt that hell wouldn’t even have them." If Dick Cheney hadn't died yesterday, this quote from Diane Ladd's obituary would have had me only thinking of Donald Trump, but that timing now has me thinking of them both, two extremely destructive men. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/m...

Happy 87th birthday to Jim Steranko, whom I met when I was 15 at my first ever comic book convention over the 1970 4th of July weekend. I prepaid for a copy of his not-yet-published History of Comics Volume One, and have my autographed copy still, as well as the now ragged envelope in which it came.

Seven years ago today right about now, I led friends old and new from the Baltimore World Fantasy Convention to a nearby farmers market where we ate biscuit sandwiches in the early morning sun, and it was about as perfect a morning as I've ever had. This community had given me gifts without number.

"I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction." — Clarence Darrow

"I could not, would not, in good conscience go to my birth country when there is such an authoritarian bully in the White House, and when the craven Republicans in the House and the U.S. Senate are complicit in their silence." — John Irving www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/s...

This afternoon's treadmill TV took in the Season 5 finale of Slow Horses, which contained one of the grossest images I've seen in a long while. When you get there, I have no doubts you'll know which one I mean. Not bloody, not violent, not scary ... just gross. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

If I were rich, I'd buy this original art, one of the most important covers in the history of comics, to hang on my wall. After funding all those food banks, that is. But then I would buy this cover. comics.ha.com/itm/original...

Seven years ago today, when I was one of the Guests of Honor at that year's World Fantasy Convention, I gave one of the most important speeches I'm ever likely to give. It was all about conventions — what they’ve been, what they are, what they could be, and what they should be youtu.be/XbWHTYj2xl8

Today in state-sponsored terrorism. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/c...

This morning's first stab at revisions to the new story added 233 words to its opening scene. I hope to push on further later today once I tick off a bunch of items from my to-do list.

So not only does my subconscious help me with first drafts, providing passages as I sleep, but it helps with revisions as well — as proven by my waking in the middle of last night with a complete sentence to be inserted in the new story's second paragraph. I should spend more time sleeping!

I have no idea who's owned it all these years, but the first page from the first issue of my Captain Marvel run is currently up at auction. If you'd care to be the new owner of this Al Milgrom/Terry Austin splash from the distant past of 1977, check it out! comics.ha.com/itm/original...

Congratulations to @splinister.bsky.social, whose story "Raptor" won the World Fantasy Award this year for Best Short Fiction! Learn more about this wonderful writer by brunching with us on an episode of my Eating the Fantastic podcast.‪ www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

Today in Donald Trump's state-sponsored terrorism. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Today's treadmill entertainment — which I sensed I'd better get to quickly if I wanted to avoid spoilers — was Weapons. And I was impressed.

With the addition of 208 words, this afternoon's writing session finishes off the first draft of a new short story. And now the real fun begins — revisions. There is no greater writing joy for me than in exploding a story and carefully reassembling it closer to what it was meant to be all along.

PS Publishing has passed along this image showing for the first time the back cover to 101 Things to Do Before You're Downloaded, my science fiction short story collection due out later this month. What a beauty! Click through to preorder your copy today! pspublishing.co.uk/101-things-t...

The great Steve Ditko was born on this date in 1927. Why not remember him by listening to @javierhernandez.bsky.social, @zackkruse.bsky.social, Carl Potts, and @arlenschumer.bsky.social reminisce on an episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during Ditko Con? www.scottedelman.com/2021/09/17/s...

I'd prefer them to end up like the Donner Party.

Your (not so) context-free comic book panel of the day.

Don't stop, don't give up! Keep trying! youtu.be/7uUlOAyQsn4

A final ICYMI for the weekenders of the latest episode of Eating the Fantastic with guest @nassos.bsky.social. Eavesdrop as he explains why the fact readers won’t need to know anything about Bluebeard to enjoy his Bluebeard-inspired novel is a tragedy — and more. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

Woke in the night not to any new earworms, but rather to several sentences served up by my subconscious which provide the skeleton for the final scene of this new story. So it seems I might finish the first draft today after all, thanks to the only collaborator I've ever been able to tolerate.

I agree with Lynda Barry. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...

Tonight's writing session — my second of the day — added another 321 words to the new story, bringing today's total to 638, an unusually high number for me. I'd have been thrilled with half that. Plus — it might be only one more scene before I can consider the first draft finished. But we shall see.

Remembering the late, great Gordon R. Dickson, born on this date in 1923, whose autograph I obtained at the 1972 LunaCon immediately before committing what felt like the greatest faux pas of my fannish career. But hey, I was only 17. Surely I can be forgiven? Anyway, what happened was this ...

ICE is a terrorist organization spreading violence, anarchy, and fear at Donald Trump's command. They're coming for you. They coming for me. They're coming for us all. newrepublic.com/post/202301/...

It's been pointed out I misspoke (mistyped?), and what @foxesandroses.bsky.social has won is a BRITISH Fantasy Award rather than a WORLD Fantasy Award. I apologize for my error. But regardless of that confusion, the honor earned by that amazing writer is no less.

Congratulations to @foxesandroses.bsky.social, whose short story "Loneliness Universe" just won a World Fantasy Award! Get to know this astonishing author better by taking a seat at the table with us on a recent episode of my Eating the Fantastic podcast. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

This afternoon's writing session added 317 words to the story in progress, and I'm beginning to sense the light at the end of the tunnel on this first draft. Note I don't yet *see* the light, only *sense* it, because my way isn't quite that clear ... but it's growing closer, I can tell.