My wife and I got lucky. She emigrated from Japan in late December 2019, just days before 2020 rolled around. (My God, what happened to that whole year?) If she hadn’t come in those early weeks, we might still not be together. We didn’t lose anyone, but obviously many did. The Economist estimates 10 million … Continue reading This Is The End
The bus pulled onto the shoulder to report the bleeder on the side of the highway. A car had clipped the man’s leg, which bent awkwardly to one side. His hands had frozen into fists and his feet were limp, and they wobbled over the asphalt as he dragged himself forward on his elbows, one … Continue reading The Future is Strange.
I pulled Etude down, down, down endless flights of stairs: stairs that curled, stairs at right angles, stairs that cut a straight line, our feet quickstepping across stone. By turn after turn, we descended deep into the Keep of Solomon, ahead of the shouts and calls. If it had been a rational structure, we might … Continue reading (Fiction) The Knife That Killed Albert Gallagher Twice
The Guggenheim in New York is running a major retrospective on Hilma af Klint through early 2019. I discovered her only recently as I was doing research for my forthcoming occult mystery, FEAST OF SHADOWS. In the book, one of the principal characters travels to India with Madame Helena Blavatsky, founder of the once-popular pseudo-religious … Continue reading (Art) The Trances of Hilma af Klint
There's a trend in contemporary fantastic art so pervasive that I feel it needs it's own genre: the casual hierophany, or passing encounter with a god. A hierophany is a manifestation of the divine other. The name implies more than a mere appearance or vision. A hierophany is an eruption of the divine in our … Continue reading (Art) The Old Gods
For those still following this blog, join us over at The End of the World Almanac! Life in the future isn’t just strange, it’s lethally absurd. Death by Axe Body Spray.Many teenage boys suffer from excessive use of deodorant sprays. Unfortunately, for Jonathan Capewell, personal hygiene was a tragic obsession. His persistent use built toxic … Continue reading Death by Absurdity
I enjoy the creature art of Alexander Ostrowski because he approaches his subjects similar to how I approach my novels, by imbuing the fantastic with a heavy dose of realism such that you can easily believe such things might actually exist. In one sense, you could say that is the purest form of escapism: a … Continue reading (Art) The Imaginary Critters of Alexander Ostrowski
Why is 4 out of 5 stars good for a restaurant but near-catastrophic for an Uber driver? Why do hotels and movies have two kinds of ratings but books and consumer electronics only have one? I mean, a rating is just a rating, right? If I like it, I give it more stars. If not, … Continue reading (Sunday Thought) My God, it’s full of stars…
You would think that after collecting and sharing hundreds of BIG BALL images, that would be it. But you would be wrong. Here is Part III. Part I is here and Part II is here. (I don't even collect these. I just think it's funny how ubiquitous the Big Ball has become.)
In addition to his art for tabletop and video game properties, Tony Sart also illustrates the humorous side of fantasy, be it goblin pranks, a fierce warrior on the toilet (in his fuzzy slippers), vampires playing Russian roulette with a sunbeam, a necromancer hugging her first raised corpse, or Lord of the Rings in the … Continue reading (Art) The Humorous Fantasy of Tony Sart
What's worst about social media comes not from the platform itself but the advertiser model. Algorithms, which drive political division and misinformation, were meant to drive engagement for advertisers. The more you're engaged, the longer you stay on the site. The longer you stay on the site, the more ads you see. The more ads … Continue reading (Sunday Thought) Fixing the News
The Zero Signal, the first Science Crimes Division mystery, officially releases today in paperback and digital. Here's what readers are saying: "The imaginative worldbuilding, the complex characters and the sheer scope that’s both shown and at time hinted at, reveal a world that both breathtaking and scary." -Goodreads review "Given that a lot of cyberpunk … Continue reading (Art) Science Crimes in Progress
Curiomancy (fantastic art + fiction + thought) 