Memories

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I know, the only constant in life is change. But here’s one that basically won’t affect anything that has an emotional impact on me.

When I was little, the first thing Mom taught me to bake was her grandmother’s mondel bread. It’s been a constant in my life, a recipe I haven’t looked at in years because I can do it without even thinking, pure muscle memory.

The main ingredients are flour, sugar, eggs, and Crisco. And for all the years I’ve been making it, the can on the right has been the one I bought when I needed more (I buy it at Costco, because I bake often enough that it lasts). The can on the left is the new design, and it was a shock when I first saw it. It was almost painful when I had to buy it, and today, I used up the old one and opened the new: the end of an era. The contents are exactly the same; the only thing that has changed is the look of the can. But that’s an emotional change that makes me remember all that baking over all those years.

#Crisco #baking #memories

Science Fiction PLUS Convention (4th of 2026)

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All the cool kids are doing it, so…

Here’s my tentative schedule for DragonCon, September 3–7, in Atlanta, Georgia:

Thursday at 10:00 pm (in Embassy AB Hyatt): “Eye of Argon, Again!” with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Esther Friesner, and Jean Marie Ward.

Friday from 8:30 pm to midnight or so (in the Hyatt’s International Ballroom): Fantasy Gather. This is the massive book signing and sale event. Come meet many authors, buy their books, and get them autographed!

Saturday at 11:30 am (in Embassy EF Hyatt): “Breaking into Traditional Publishing” with Melissa Olthoff, Steve Saffel, Anne Sowards, and Toni Weisskopf.

Monday at 1:00 pm (in Embassy EF Hyatt): “Writing Tiny: Flash and Microfiction” with David Boop, Darin M. Bush, Wayland Smith, and Sean Hylton Taylor.

That leaves me lots of free time, if anyone is looking for a chance to meet up somewhere in the throngs. I imagine I’ll be in the Westin bar (where the writers tend to hang out) Thursday late, Saturday and Sunday evenings. And I’ll have copies of my books available, especially at the Fantasy Gather, but also at my panels.

I know I’ll see many, many people there. I hope you’re one of them!

Where have all the colors gone?

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I most often remark on this when I’m driving: it’s just boring that all the cars are the same non-color white and black and gray and silver. Even the blues and reds are so dark and muted as to be shades of gray themselves.

And yes, the car I’m driving is white: for that, I plead the fact that we bought it used. But unlike those referenced in the article, thinking about resale value, I don’t think we’ve ever sold a car. In my family, we tend to drive them into the ground.

But when my sister recently sold her house, she had to repaint the interior first. Out with the purple-pink bedroom, the blue bedroom, and the dark green-brown (I’m not really sure how to describe the color) bedroom; they were all white the last time we were there.

I like colors. I’m fortunate that the house is so over-decorated that the white walls are just backgrounds for the artwork hanging on them. And as I sit here working at the kitchen table, I’m looking out at the flowers on the back deck: green leaves in at least five different shades, underneath red and pink and purple and orange and white flowers. More colors, please!

This post was inspired by Amogh Dimri’s Atlantic essay, “The Color Recession May be Permanent.”

Also, here’s the view from where I’m sitting right now:

Between the Trumpians and the DSA, there’s no place for me

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The Trumpian wing of the Republican Party has been doing an excellent job of forcing me into the arms of the Democratic Party. I fear their hatred, their racism, their dishonesty, their graft, and their deification of Donald Trump. So for the last several elections, I’ve voted straight Democratic tickets.

But now I’m watching the Socialist wing of the Democratic Party doing their best to force me away from the Democrats. It’s on fewer issues, but perhaps that’s only because they are the newer player on the stage, and haven’t had the time to poison as many wells. There’s the outrageous “abolish police” position, and their drives to nationalize certain industries. And there’s more.

I’m not religious—don’t attend temple, don’t keep kosher—but I am socially or culturally Jewish. And every time the Democratic Socialists open their mouths, I feel even more marginalized, even more a target of their outright hatred. A few weeks ago, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatened to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is not accused of committing any crimes in New York City (though the ICC has an asymmetric view of the events of October 7, 2023, and its aftermath). So why is Mamdani making such threats? Who is the audience he’s playing to? His comments certainly don’t represent this citizen of New York City. And now, he’s decided the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary should have no Jews on it.

And most recently, DSA spokesmodel Hasan Piker is certain that whoever wins the Democratic nomination for president in 2028 will oppose Israel and embrace Hamas and the Palestinians. (CNN on July 31 played a clip of his comment, taken from an interview that is scheduled to air August 2.)

The Democrats seem hell-bent on losing, and I’ve written about it before. In 2018, it was throwing out Senator Al Franken, because he’d been in a questionable photo years before he was elected to the Senate. In 2021, it was the fight with the new progressives demanding everything instantly, and threatening to derail the entire Joe Biden presidency if they didn’t get everything they wanted immediately. In 2022, the Democrats were yelling at Senators Manchin and Sinema to abolish the filibuster rule (they should be venerating them today for not giving in). Today, the Democrats have been handed the future on a platter: Trump’s reputation is at historical lows; the Trump-Iran War is keeping prices and inflation high; the Trump-Epstein Files still have not been released; his chief domestic priority seems to be plastering his name and his tacky taste on everything in Washington; and the list goes on. A Democratic sweep of government offices would require only keeping their heads down and doing their jobs. Instead, they’ve let their Socialist wing come rampaging in, doing nothing to attract new voters, but doing everything to turn off Democratic stalwarts, the centrists.

There have always been racists in this country. But when Trump came to power, the racists felt emboldened. They became comfortable proclaiming their racism publicly. And there have always been anti-semites. But with the rise of the Democratic Socialists, they, too, are no longer ashamed.

Several of my friends have or will soon move out of the country because they fear a Trumpian future. Each of those moves saddens me, because I’ve held the firm opinion that the country can be saved, and is worth fighting for. But now, listening to the Democratic Socialists, I’m wondering if my friends fleeing the country are actually the smart ones.

The Republicans have accepted the Trumpians and their vitriolic hatred for everyone who isn’t them. Now the Democrats are accepting the Socialists and their hatred of Jews. Is there any place left for me and mine?

These guys, again?

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I’ve been rewatching The West Wing (and dreaming of politicians we can all admire), while also remarking on the pure fantasy of it all. We hear opinion polls all the time: the party in power is supported or opposed, the person in office has favorables and unfavorables, and so forth. But the point of it all—regardless of the polls, regardless of the people—is that the American electorate, by and large, is never happy with the party in the White House.

Specifically, we have buyer’s remorse, and almost always have. For evidence, I point to the number of times we’ve elected a new president who is a member of the same party as the outgoing president. That number is small.

From 1800 to 1828, we had four straight presidents who were members of the Democrat-Republican party, but there really wasn’t much of an opposition party at that time. Indeed, the election of 1820 had only one candidate: sitting president James Monroe was re-elected with more than 78% of the popular vote and 231 of the 232 electoral votes cast (the Federalist party, with no named candidate, got 19% of the popular vote). Thomas Jefferson was elected in 1800 and 1804, James Madison in 1808 and 1812, Monroe in 1816 and 1820, and John Quincy Adams in 1824.

In the election of 1836, Democrat Andrew Jackson was retiring after two terms, and his second vice president, his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren, won the election, holding the White House for the Democrats.

The next time that happened was in 1856, when Democrat Franklin Pierce lost his bid to be nominated for a second term, but the Democrat who won the nomination, James Buchanan, won the presidency as well.

The election of 1876 was very close. As Republican Ulysses Grant was retiring after two terms, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was in a very close race with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Indeed, Tilden won the popular vote, but the Electoral Commission awarded enough of the disputed electoral votes to give Hayes the electoral college, 185 to 184. In 1880, Hayes kept his pledge and did not run for a second term. Instead, Republican James A. Garfield won the election to succeed him (and was assassinated six months into his term of office).

Republican William McKinley was elected in 1896. His first vice president, Garrett Hobart, died in 1899, and in the election of 1900, McKinley was re-elected with vice president Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley was assassinated in late 1901, and Roosevelt succeeded. Roosevelt then won his own term as president in 1904. In 1908, Roosevelt stepped aside, and his chosen successor, Republican William Howard Taft was elected. In 1912, Roosevelt would split from Taft, run against him, and give the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

In 1920, Republican Warren Harding was elected. He died in 1923, elevating Vice President Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. Coolidge won his own term in 1924, and chose not to run for another term in 1928, so Republican Herbert Hoover was elected to succeed him.

In 1988, after two terms of wide support, Ronald Reagan was forced to retire from the presidency under the terms of the 22nd Amendment, and his vice president, George H.W. Bush, was elected to succeed him.

To sum up, we’ve chosen a person of the same political party to succeed a departing president only in 1808, 1816, 1824, 1836, 1876, 1880, 1908, 1928, and 1988. Nine times. That’s it. (That is also ignoring Vice Presidents John Tyler and Chester Arthur [who weren’t elected to their own terms] and Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson [who were], who first succeeded to the office upon the deaths of their predecessors).

We chose to change parties in the elections of 1800, 1828, 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852, 1860, 1868 (Abraham Lincoln’s second vice president, Andrew Johnson, was not a member of his Republican party), 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1912, 1920, 1932, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2016, 2020, and 2024.

I’m not predicting anything for 2028; you can draw your own conclusions.…

Publishing today: Lemuria 7 by Allen Steele

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Is there a Bermuda Triangle on the Moon?

Billionaire inventor Edison Smith pays for the Lemuria 7 moon mission as a tourist trip, sending media into an uproar. Is it a case of conspicuous consumption? Fodder for the tabloids? Actual, privately funded scientific research? Or something else? It turns out to be all of those things at once, and more.…

When Smith, his wife Mary Alice, their daughter Amelia, Amelia’s fiancé Todd, and the crew of Lemuria 7 disappear, the only conclusion to be drawn is sudden equipment failure leading to catastrophic disaster. But there are hints that such might not be the case.

Believing it was something more—and hoping against hope that the inevitable outcome might not have been so inevitable—Merlin Feng sends robots, and then people (including himself) to the Moon to find out what happened to the Smiths, who were like family to him. That mission, too, encounters… problems.When three-time Hugo Award winner Allen Steele is telling the tale, you can be assured there is more happening than meets the eye. Deeper mysteries and hidden motives mean that Lemuria 7 will live forever, even if the Smiths don’t.

How am I doing?

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Last night, I was at Readercon for about 25 minutes. I went to the hotel just to drop off the boxes of books which I’ll be setting up today. Then I returned the luggage cart, and in the forty feet I had to walk from leaving the luggage cart to exiting the hotel door to get back to the car, I stopped and talked with five people I know. (In other words, a standard convention: can’t walk down a hall without stopping to talk.)

Each of them asked how I was doing, and to each, I gave the same flippant answer I’ve been using for years: “I’m properly insane.” With those three words, I usually intend to convey the fact that I’m busy, doing many things, but they’re the things I should be doing.

But last night, getting ready for bed, I had something of an epiphany. Sure, I’m busy, but actually the answer to “how am I doing?” is “pretty damn good!”

RESISTANCE (the anthology I edited to help support the ACLU and Pro Publica) is doing well, and people are appreciating it.

Last week, I got a fan letter about PUNCTILIOUS PUNCTUATION.

I’m excited to be publishing Allen Steele’s newest novel, LEMURIA 7, on Tuesday.

I’m just about finished editing a really great book about film that I’ve been enjoying.

I’m excited to be working with a brand-new author on a two-book science fiction tale that I think a lot of people are going to like as much as I do.

I’ve got several more authors waiting for my close attention, most of them waiting patiently.

And in the few brief moments I give myself to do my own writing, it feels like I’m improving. And when I finish the stories I’m working on, I have some confidence I’ll be able to find an editor who agrees that they’re good, and wants to publish them.

I’m doing a job I want to be doing. My friends seem to value and like me, and I’m very glad to have them in my life.

And now I have to leave to go set up those books at the convention, because selling books and talking on panels to appreciative audiences is my day job.

Sure, I’m busy, trying to think in several different directions at once. But you know what? I’m doing pretty damn good!

Publishing Today: The New Americans #6

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After being forced to kill in order to protect their widowed mother, three brothers escape Mafia-controlled Sicily to the New World.

Life for immigrants in America during the second decade of the 1900s is difficult and often harrowing, but that’s the reality into which Peter, John, and Angelu Donatello are thrust when their ship docks in Philadelphia. As Peter tries to make his way in this new land through honest hard work, John’s talents—many learned fighting in the Great War—lead him to the seamier, but potentially more profitable, underworld. And all the while, Angelu, the youngest brother and a true innocent, struggles to just find a place for himself in a world he can never truly understand.

Prohibition may make criminals of honest men, but it also allows poor immigrants to mingle with the upper classes; the Donatellos among them. Yet, despite war and crime, marriage and loneliness, honor and betrayal, the brothers, each in their own way, cling to their creed of Supra tuttu la famigghia: Family is all.

Eventually, everything will lead them back to Sicily, to a confrontation with the forces that have shaped their lives, and to a heart-wrenching reconciliation.

Reminiscent of John Jakes’ Bicentennial series, The New Americans by Tony and Ty Drago is a wonderfully moving saga. The genesis of the story is itself a tale: in his final weeks, Tony Drago tape-recorded what his son Ty thought were simple reminiscences. It was only in the years following Tony’s death, after Ty became an established novelist, that he listened to the tapes and realized his father had left him, not a family history, but rather an emotional novel of immigration, rebirth, and growth. Milherst Publishing is honored to bring this story to the world.

The New Americans, by Tony & Ty Drago, has been released in six monthly installments, as both trade paperbacks and ebooks.

1: Fuggitivi. $10.99, 182 pages, ISBN 978-1-5154-5842-5. February 3, 2026.
2: Strangers in Paradiso. $10.99, 186 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5154-5843-2. March 3, 2026.
3: The Pursuit of Felicita. $10.99, 184 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5154-5844-9. April 7, 2026.
4: The Philly Crew. $12.99, 230 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5154-5845-6. May 5, 2026.
5: A Leaf in the Turning. $12.99, 224 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5154-5846-3. June 2, 2026.
6: The Prodigal Sons. $10.99, 170 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5154-5847-0. July 7, 2025.

Book #6: The Prodigal Sons

Having returned home to Sicily alone, Angelu’s letters to his brothers in Philadelphia mysteriously cease. Only later is John able to ferret out the truth: that their mother fell victim to cruel betrayal, and died of a broken heart.

Traveling back to Sicily to exact vengeance will not be easy, nor will it be happy. But such a vendetta cannot be ignored. So, at long last, the brothers who fled Sicily as frightened young boys return as wronged men, determined to find justice, even if they have to dispense it themselves. But justice, if such a thing exist, carries a heavy cost.

This is the thrilling conclusion to The New Americans saga.

Science fiction convention (3rd of 2026)

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This weekend is yet another science fiction convention for me. Well, that’s the wrong emotional weight. It’s actually only the third sf con I’ll be at this year—far too few compared to years past. At any rate, this weekend is Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts. If you’re joining me there, look for me (first, foremost, and always), in the dealers’ room at the Fantastic Books table. The room is scheduled to be open Friday from 3 to 7pm, Saturday from 10am to 7pm, and Sunday from 10am to 3pm.

I’ll also be on programming, from which schedule you’ll see that the dealers’ room opening is not at the beginning of this convention, unlike most others. You’ll find me on the following panels:

Friday at 1pm in Salon C-D: “Sports in Speculative Fiction” with Carl Engle-Laird, Claire Houck, Marianna Martin, and Bethany Powell.

Friday at 2pm in Salon A-B: “Secretly Brilliant Strategists” with Elizabeth Porter Birdsall, Julie C. Day, Marissa Lingen, and Caitlin Rozakis.

Saturday at 1pm in Create-Collaborate [yes, that’s apparently the name of a meeting room]: “Rules Were Made to be Broken” with Kathleen Jennings, Bethany Powell, Robert V.S. Redick, and Gregory Wilson.

Saturday at 7pm in Salon A-B: “Miles to Go: The Vorkosigan Saga at 40” with Katherine Crighton, Kate Nepveu, and Meredith Schwartz.

I’ll have copies of the new anthology Resistance (which was so popular at its debut at Balticon) as well as my Punctilious Punctuation (which is new since last year’s Readercon), and of course a whole slew of other fantastic Fantastic Books books. Hope to see you there!

Where are reviewers hiding?

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When I worked for Analog and Asimov’s, we had a perennial question: Analog routinely outsold Asimov’s by five or ten percent, but when it came to awards time, stories from Asimov’s always got lots of nominations and awards, while Analog garnered almost none. We knew Analog readers actually read the stories, because they wrote letters and kept renewing their subscriptions; they simply weren’t people who were interested in nominating or voting for awards. And I felt badly for the writers who didn’t see that external recognition, but there was nothing we could do to convince those readers to get into the award-nominating and -voting mindset.

Now I’m experiencing something similar, but not talking about awards. I know Fantastic Books books are selling and being read. For instance, the anthology Resistance was the #1 new release in American Literature Anthologies on Amazon, it is selling copies, and several readers have commented to me on individual stories in the book. But like most of the books my company publishes, it was yet to see a single reader review on either Amazon or GoodReads, or LibraryThing, or anywhere else I can find.

In the modern bookselling world, reader reviews are important. They make books more findable, increase their visibility on the bookselling platforms, and apparently translate to better sales numbers. But I have simply not been able to figure out why my readers are among those who don’t post reader reviews. In the old days, at Analog and Asimov’s, those readers who wanted to comment on stories had to write physical letters, in envelopes with stamps sent through the mail, and they did: we received dozens of letters every week. But today, those reader reviews are as simple as “click here, click a number of stars, type a couple of words.” Literally, just four or five words is sufficient: “I liked the book.” or “The story with the AI was cool.” And yet, nothing.

So I’m asking y’all: how do you urge readers to write those reviews? Or for those of you who do: what urges you to write a review?