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Dispatches

Coffee-stained dispatches from the Minister of Intrigue.

2018

2017 by the numbers
·741 words·4 mins
Articles Personal Meta
Yay, the obligatory retrospective post! Let’s face it, in many ways, 2017 was a dumpster fire of a year. The political and social climate has been toxic and frankly it’s hard to be effective in this kind of environment.
Writing Report Card: December 2017
·179 words·1 min
Articles Writing Submissions Report Card Publishing
Continuing my recurring feature where I publicly post a report card of fiction writing activity each month. This series is inspired by Aeryn Rudel’s blog Rejectomancy. Each month I’ll post a report card summarizing words written, submissions, rejections, and hopefully acceptances.

2017

Merlin Mann on a better media diet
·54 words·1 min
Quotes Social Media Politics
Politics, celebrity gossip, business headlines, tech punditry, odd news, and user-generated content. These are the chew toys that have made me sad and tired and cynical. — Merlin Mann, Better
Writing Report Card: November 2017
·122 words·1 min
Articles Writing Submissions Report Card Publishing
Last month, I announced a new recurring feature where I’ll publicly post a report card of fiction writing activity each month. This series is inspired by Aeryn Rudel’s blog Rejectomancy. Each month I’ll post my results, summarizing words written, submissions, rejections, and hopefully acceptances.
Riding the Mastodon
·1713 words·9 mins
Articles Personal Social Media Twitter Mastodon Open Source
Reader, I did it again. I joined another social network. I know, I know. I should know better, right? But this time feels different. There’s something special about this one. Maybe it’s simply the contrast from Facebook and Twitter that makes it so appealing, but I can’t help but feel there is great promise in Mastodon.
Tell a better story to improve your life
·1664 words·8 mins
Articles Self Improvement Mental Health
The tangle of human lives is spun with stories. Every relationship, every shared belief, and every history is made up of such things. More importantly, your stories are what define you, whether you are conscious of it or not.
Writing Report Card: October 2017
·246 words·2 mins
Articles Writing Submissions Report Card Publishing
I’ve been writing a lot more lately, shifting my work from a secret passion to more of a serious pursuit. The last few months I’ve been making steady progress on project DARK CONDUIT, and producing short stories which I’ve been submitting to fiction markets.
John Darnielle's Lyrics Slay Me
·307 words·2 mins
Quotes Music Podcasts
When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don’t expect him to thank or forgive you. — The Mountain Goats, “Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton" I’ve been listening to the podcast I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, which is a wonderful show about music, being an artist, and what it means to be a fan.
Goodnight, Writer's Ledger. Hello, Pacemaker.
·463 words·3 mins
Articles Writing Development
I’ve written here before about one of my side projects, a suite of productivity tools for writers called Writer’s Ledger. The idea began from a desire to convert the spreadsheets I use for tracking manuscripts to a reusable web app.
Survey: How do fiction writers work?
·131 words·1 min
Articles Writing Surveys
Are you a fiction writer? Do you find yourself curious about how other writers work and track their progress? You are not alone. I am fascinated by the processes that people use to blend their creative work with the business of making art.
18 Essential Apps for Getting Shit Done
·2366 words·12 mins
Articles Assorted Geekery Tech Productivity Writing Security
OMG, a workflow post! Apps, tools, productivity, oh my! Listen, we all know that no app can make you more productive by itself. Your methods are always more important than your tools.
Office Atemi: it's not all hugs and rainbows
·704 words·4 mins
Articles Aikido Martial Arts Business Conflict Self Improvement
Since my post about Aikido at work. a few months ago, I’ve received a number of questions that have the same theme. Take this one from reader Kevin: I like what you’re saying about resolving conflict, but doesn’t that [mean] you’re always reactive?
The Delirium Brief: the magical deep state is here to save you
·429 words·3 mins
Articles Books Reviews
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross ⭐️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ It’s hard not to love Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series as a concept. A clandestine government agency of computational demonologists defend the world from horrors beyond space and time, all while trying to keep up with their expense reports.
N.K. Jemisin on the secret of oppression
·107 words·1 min
Quotes Politics
Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default.
My faithful companion: mutt
··482 words·3 mins
Articles Email Assorted Geekery Personal
About a month ago, on a whim, I started an experiment where I stopped checking my personal email on my phone, or via the web. Instead, I moved all my personal email activity over to Mutt.
Star.Ships: Your ancestors were smarter than you think
··553 words·3 mins
Articles Reviews Books
Star.Ships by Gordon White ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ Gordon White’s exercise in using data analysis to speculatively reconstruct ancient belief systems is a mind-bending journey through our most ancient history. In this book, he tracks our species’ first departure from what we now call Africa, and the beginnings of both the Laurasian mythological “novel”, as well as the Gondwana “grandmother myths” that came with us.
Manguso on anxiety
·35 words·1 min
Quotes Anxiety Mental Health
Worry is impatience for the next horror. — Sarah Manguso, 300 Arguments Manguso’s 300 Arguments is a wonderful and quick read. This passage keeps floating to the top of my mind, and refuses to leave.
Warren Ellis on myth as a carrier wave
·98 words·1 min
Quotes Myth
I ended a talk in Manchester a couple of years ago with this: Magic is our language and our story, and we can’t ride the ghost train into a future of haunted machines without them.
Review of The Night Ocean
·487 words·3 mins
Articles Reviews Books
The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️️️️⭐️ This is a book where my opinion of it has changed the longer I’ve been away from it. It’s a strange book, and honestly its structure was nearly its undoing for me.
River of Teeth, or why the hippo is my new spirit animal
·283 words·2 mins
Articles Books Reviews
River of Teeth In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source.