I could almost get away with the stub listing ‘It sucked’. The many and varied ways 2016 achieved maximum suckage will be studied in later history (if there is anyone left alive to study it). I’m not raising my blood pressure detailing those slings and arrows tonight. Instead, I want to talk about good things.…
Read More 2016 year in reviewAs if 2016 hadn’t sucked badly enough before this, December saw news that two more publishers were going under with messy implosions. In both cases, authors and readers were left hanging. Torquere was a small erotic romance publisher once reasonably respected, but torpedoed by mismanagement over the last few years. The bigger news a few…
Read More More publishers behaving badlyMany years ago, a wonderful little bead shop called ‘Another Bead Please’ had some gorgeous pieces of multicolored cane glass beads on commission. I was lucky enough to score two massive curved glass beads, each in two-tone triangular cane glass: one clear and teal, and this one in cobalt and clear glass. Since I have…
Read More Cobalt Arc NecklaceThis used to be a different necklace, but I sold one of the components separately a few years ago. A different chain, a little Deco style, and here’s a new necklace! Materials: sterling silver, amethyst, ametrine, rutilated quartz, clear quartz (rock crystal), smoky quartz, labradorite, iolite. Concept: in a layered 3D filigree oval, a cast…
Read More Seabird NecklaceThe predatory vanity publishing world is not limited to fiction. Academic and scientific papers are also a hot commodity, since the legitimate markets can have high entry barriers in fees and vetting. A host of predatory and often outright criminal publishers have surfaced to ‘serve’ those customers. Many scientists and academics need to publish work…
Read More Beall’s List and fake academic publishersFirst off, to the Russians who keep trying to hack me: why? I’m small fry, not worth your effort. I have 13 subscribers with a handful of other readers, and I run a blog that is mostly a wall o’text. No pretty pictures, no clickbait ads, and no one powerful cares what I think. Granted,…
Read More What up, Russians?While we’re looking at the economic and social issues coalescing around the Ghost Ship fire, we need to accept that exploitation of creatives is so common it’s basically a tenet of American culture. The vanity publishers I talk about in the ‘Filigree’s Rule’ section of this blog? They’re only one of the more-blatant tips of…
Read More White Walls, Ghost Ship, and the arts in AmericaThe lessons are piling on from last Friday’s horrific ‘Ghost Ship’ fire in Oakland, California. At least three dozen people died. To recap: The Ghost Ship was an urban warehouse illegally and shoddily converted into cheap work-live housing for artists, musicians, and other creatives. Electricity and water were siphoned from neighbors, and frequently didn’t work.…
Read More Artists, protect yourselvesTrump’s latest cabinet pick for Secretary of Education is ‘Michigan royalty’ Betsy DeVos. This is not only a potential disaster for American public education, it’s another sure sign that when Trump says ‘Drain the Swamp!’, he must mean his version of Opposite Day. As in crony capitalism on steroids. How swampy is Betsy DeVos, in…
Read More Pyramid Schemes, Dunbar’s Number, and Betsy DeVosLet’s face it, the alt.right are Neo Nazis, pure and simple. They’re not ‘white nationalists’. They’re not ‘dapper’. They don’t simply want a ‘white homeland’ free from all ‘colored’ influences…they want to crowd out and exterminate the Other. We know this, we’ve seen this dance before. Their tools are misinformation and resentment, fear, and a…
Read More How to deal with Neo NazisCorel’s new digital arts platform Painter 17 is out now, and I’m fiddling around with it this week. I finished this teaser art piece for the new version of Moro’s Price in about 30 minutes, and that was because I was slowly playing around with some of the new Artist’s Favorites brushes. I should have…
Read More Painter 17 teaser art…Or be impeached, or even be assassinated (possibly even by his own people). And that should scare the crap out of every liberal in America. The Trump alternatives are worse. Even if none of those things happen, Trump has made it pretty clear he has neither an inclination for nor an interest in the details…
Read More Donald J. Trump will be forced to resign…This is a long shot, for actually doing anything…but you can sign a petition to the US Electoral College to recast or overturn their votes for Trump. They have a little over a month. Try this site, for more information. Clinton won the popular vote, but not the Electoral. Hmm. When have we seen this…
Read More How Electors can redeem their honor(Soon to be an artist’s book.) For a couple of years, I’ve been taken to task by well-meaning folks who want me to make only positive, light-hearted, beautiful books that affirm life and hope. And I do – I’ve got a lot of those on the workshop table, or in development. But being a nihilist,…
Read More Narrow ShoreOne of the perils of being an Independent voter, as well as mostly a nihilist, is that I often think of the worst possible outcome…and expect to see it. I’ve never been as completely saddened by America as I am now. #Whitelash and emotion-based politics carried the day over dull competence and multicultural globalism last…
Read More So that happenedI wear this right angle weave necklace every election and most national holidays. The seed beads are old stock Czech. The blue and white chevron beads are Chinese or Indian, circa 2006. The glass millefiori button is Japanese from around the 1950s, I think. I made it right after the 9-11 attacks in 2001. It…
Read More Election DayWarning: I will say some unkind things next. If you’re a US citizen, are you registered to vote? Will you vote tomorrow? Why haven’t you already voted? (It’s going to be a mess at the polls, and early voting by absentee ballot is so much easier, if your state allows it!) Some quick notes: If…
Read More Make your vote count!I had to ponder this one for a week, because it hit home. I may be adding to this post over the next few days. Sherri S. Tepper was a powerful author and outspoken activist, who happened to write science fiction and fantasy. I first ran across her work in 1983, when my best friend…
Read More In memoriam: Sherri S. TepperI suspected a long time ago this election bid of Trump’s was mostly a marketing stunt, until he fell in love with adulation and started saying anything to keep getting it. Now, in an effort to counter the ‘lying media’, he’s started a ‘news channel’ on Facebook. Guess what it looks like? Hmm. Anyone remember…
Read More We called it: Trump TVIt’s one thing when a publisher circles the drain, and nearly everyone has known or suspected it would happen for months or years. It’s another, when a *good* small press fails. One that was, by most accounts, doing everything right: lasting for longer than two years, choosing great books and authors, designing excellent covers, marketing…
Read More Well, shucks…