Goldish The instrument of the villain who adroitly becomes the villain of Guards! Guards! likes gold, and wrecks the palace of the city's Patrician. We shouldn't look too closely at this man, as he himself rules as an autocrat. His saving grace? He's one of the good ones, if such things as good…

Just say No Kings mobilize.us/s/X2o2TQ

On the Value of Age In Sir Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! Captain Vimes is a time-weathered, cynical leader of a cadre of the City Watch in a city that licenses crime such as theft and assassination via guilds that police their sorts of misbehavior. They rot to a slender version of their former…

Learn Something New Every Day Thanks to eldest daughter KMC, also a writer, I learned today that "epistolary fiction" doesn't just apply to, say, Dracula, but to fiction in other formats. Like, for example, a SWOT analysis written for a business class. Writing "The Assignment" caught me by…

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS Princeton NJ” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

We are very much looking forward to having a table at Can Con @canconsffh.bsky.social! Stop by our fan table to chat about the bid to host the 2030 World Science Fiction in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton)!

Republicans are scrambling to rig 2026 before voters even weigh in. But California isn’t backing down. This November, vote YES on Prop 50 to protect fair maps and stop Republicans from stacking the deck against us.

“It’s Complicated” Since the advent of social media, this tag for relationship status enables acknowledgement of complexity. In the context of my relationship with Horror, it suits perfectly. Almost forty years after the fact I don't now recall how much Horror made it onto my Ph.D. reading list. I…

Ed Carmien talking about the way that fiction often glamorizes authoritarianism

“So You’ve Been Dating Horror for Awhile…” "...just how serious is it?" Actually, four books in three years seems to be a stronger commitment than just "dating." So just what is my relationship with this genre? It's complicated. Of course, a lifelong tie to science fiction doesn't just go away. It…

The summer issue of the SFRA Review contains reviews of the Hinder Stars novels, published by DAW Books (thanks Betsy Wollheim) and written by legends C.J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher. sfrareview.org/vol-55-no-3-...

No Kidding? I don't worry about what writer I may or may not resemble. Writing has traits. Some of my writing is like other writers, unlike some writers. My prose is what it is. I work to make my fiction effective, to make it carry the stories I feel compelled to tell, and to be of interest and…

Comparisons Putting A and B next to each other and contemplating similarities and differences represents a common human activity. I'm happy to assert, sans research, that it's a basic human evolutionary trait: "Hey, these two berries are almost but not quite alike--which one is poison, and which…

Every Democrat must oppose any GOP budget that allows Trump’s chaos and lawlessness to continue unchecked. Any government funding deal must halt Trump’s attacks on federal agencies and programs that Americans count on for their health, safety and economic security. Contact your elected officials. 👇

“Democrats will face a choice: Join Republicans to fund a government that President Trump is turning into a tool of authoritarian takeover and vengeance or shut the government down.” @ezraklein.bsky.social is correct: Democrats can’t vote to fund Trump’s autocratic takeover.

My latest blog post: a piece on publishing professional and horror author William Sloane and a peak at what I discovered about him in the Princeton University Library archives. It was fun to write again after a long break. davidjgoodwin.com/2025/09/08/w...

Do you like: - 40-hour work weeks? - Weekends? - Lunch breaks? - Minimum wages? Then you like unions! Support your local union workers 💪

Alien: Earth thought. Five corporations. Five Hybrids (the lost boys). Five alien species. I sort of feel like you can parallel aspects of each of the five alien species to the corporations. Also to each of the lost boys?

Sundries Sometimes one simply has to broom up a collection of different things into one dustpan, and then post the dustpan. This is that dustpan. I watched a YouTube video by Elizabeth Wheatley ( she of the highly amusing Book Goblin) about Amazon / Audible being Evil (what's new?) that made me…

This seems like a no brainer: chng.it/Xbh25LqkM6 (Went looking for a different petition about Audible being Evil and couldn't find it....)

The Tortured Artist Stereotype Stock in trade in popular media when it comes to artists is the "tortured artist" stereotype. No matter what the medium (though visual artists seem to feature prominently) a stock representation of the artist is a person going through some kind of hell. Vincent van…

I just signed this petition – will you? Will they get away with doing away with actual news? This is $1.1 billion in funding that local PBS and NPR stations were counting on. I just signed and I hope that you will, too: act.commoncause.org/petitions/te...

Sunday, Sad Day, End Day A 'con is like a season at summer camp, where diverse people come together and work and play together and form that community thread I talked about yesterday. And then it ends, and the hostage of joy we give fortune when we form such bonds turns to sadness, and away we all…

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday (at WorldCon 2025) Another SFWA breakfast to start the day, finally feeling comfortable in the packed blocks around the hotel and able to get around without looking like a total newb, looking down at my phone for directions.... Returned from breakfast in plenty of time…

I couldn't be more delighted to accept this award. Thank you so much!

A WorldCon Friday I've gotten a lot out of my SFWA membership over the years. Publishing information. Community. Sample contracts. A failed bid to be SFWA Secretary (but...he's also in the SFRA? Shocking!). A stint as a mentor. A nice sticker at this 'con that denotes my membership for all to see.…

@poppynorthcutt.bsky.social getting a lot of name drops at WorldCon 2025 in Seattle!

A Thursday to Remember My first 'con day here in Seattle became memorable. First I raced to register and it turned out the registry folks were prepared for "first slot panelists" like me. That made getting to my first panel on authoritarianism in science fiction a breeze. The panel went well as we…

Tribalisms Faced with a wait to start my WorldCon 2025 day here in the Seattle Convention Center, a few thoughts about tribalism. This term often denotes the unfortunate tendency of people to see themselves as a special group and to do unto others not as they would have others do unto themselves.…

The fight for justice and democracy against an authoritarian force often starts this way. The options are few. The odds are long. It looks dicey. The only real path forward is the courageous path. We need more leaders who understand what this moment demands: www.bluestatedefiance.org/redistrictin...

WorldCon 2025 Details A bit of commentary about the panels and paper listed yesterday.... I'm serving on four panels, each centered in some way around science fiction. First thing Thursday morning, registration timing issues aside (I arrive after I can pick up my badge Wednesday, and the session…

WorldCon 2025: Seattle! I am privileged to attend this year's WorldCon (members vote on Hugo Awards, one of the two most prestigious awards a work can earn in the field) in Seattle, Washington. As one does, here I post what I think is my schedule. I'm on a number of panels and also presenting a…

Small Press Names: The Derby No assertion imagined, claimed, intended, or asserted about these presses, aside from the "oh that's cool" factor of their name. List compiled by Erica Verillo provided the contestants. Racers. Whatever competes in a Derby. Better Than Starbucks (Not a coffee drinker,…

Swimming in the Small Press Sea (of Chaos), Part 2 Passing through the sea I encountered a number of unicorns. Take enough little presses and some significant number invariably prove to be unique. For these I sought some connection, a link to their unicorn-ness, and submitted if I found it. For…

Swimming in the Small Press Sea (of Chaos), Part 1 In pursuit of a publisher for A Shadow's Width I have just finished swimming the sea of small presses, each a dedicated group of people (sometimes just one people) promoting their vision of words in print. By holding to fairly strict criteria I…

I smell fish. sign.moveon.org/petitions/co...

SFF writers take note! SFWA's Board of Directors has updates on the Must Read Publishing situation: what Must Read has now promised to change, and what steps SFWA is taking next, to ensure future contracts require less negotiation from writers in genre. READ MORE BELOW ⬇️ www.sfwa.org/2025/07/14/p...

Titles II & Silver Linings In July 2024 I wrote about titles, and in that post I said that I thought I had a good title for Book 1, The Name. Italics in the original indicated, I think now, some level of unease about the title, which indeed works well for the early chapters of the book. But a…

No Kings. Stand now!

Sorry Donald, we broke up with monarchy in 1776. Join the people-powered peaceful pushback: moveon.org/wedontdokings All ages. All voices. All in.

Surprise! Last week I was noodling along with Book Four, pleased I had kept that project "alive" in my head during the academic year, drafting from time to time, taking notes, making some important narrative decisions (see earlier entries for the thrilling details!), and I guessed I had upwards of…

Final “About Writing” Post Negotiations The per word rate published by a market as what they pay is sometimes what it is. Other times it is a starting place. If you meet with success, with follow up acceptances you can ask for a bit more. They can always say no. I found this useful decades ago…

No Dust Another in a series of posts about the business of writing short genre fiction.... My one time mentor Professor Nolan Miller emphatically stated that a short story sitting on your shelf and nowhere else represented a waste. Like an unrented hotel room, an unsold seat in a sporting arena,…