Tell Me Something Good You Have Done

Wed 23 Apr 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

I am talking to the President, to the (nominal) political party he belongs to, as well as his cabinet.

Tell me one good thing. Not taking vaccines away, or making food and air and water and work more dangerous; not destroying a legacy of international relations (bloody as they have been); not attempting to destroy one of the world’s largest economy; not taking the rights of those most needing them; not bringing back child labor; not pardoning rapists and those who invaded the US Capitol; not firing thousands of people; not scaring the hell out of everyone on social security, medicare, and medicaid; not abducting, kidnapping, and imprisoning or renditioning immigrants; not refusing due process; not firing immigration judges; not undermining the separation of church and state; not ignoring the parts of the constitution you don’t like; not trying to cut solar and bring back fossil fuels; not put cronyism before the common weal; not hurt public schools by siphoning money to charter schools which do not provide a free appropriate public education; &c., &c. This is only what I came up with here on my couch without research.

Go on: tell me something — anything — good you’ve done for anyone but yourself.


Elwin Cotman Wins a Whiting Award

Thu 17 Apr 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Excellent news: Elwin Cotman is one of ten 2025 Whiting Award Winners. There’s a good story on it in Elwin’s hometown paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Elwin has a novel coming from Scribner, The Age of Ignorance, as well as four collections of stories, including Dance on Saturday.


Kathleen Jennings and Kij Johnson Redux

Wed 16 Apr 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Kathleen Jennings’s Kindling: Stories has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award — “Australia’s premier speculative fiction award” — for Best Collection.

The cover for Kathleen’s next novel, Honeyeater, dropped and it is worth clicking on the link.

Also of note, Kathleen did the cover art and half-page pen-and-ink illustrations for Kij Johnson’s forthcoming RiverBank roleplaying game which is being crowdfunded right now on Backerkit and has more than doubled the original goal.