The Mighty Pen

I upgraded to WordPress 3.0 after yesterday’s post. Every now and then I follow the warnings and do a full backup of my site before I push the automatic installation button, but mostly I just push the button and hope nothing goes wrong. It was a major update, from 2.something to 3.0, so by all rights I should have been more prudent, but I wasn’t. Nothing bad happened. Everything went like clockwork. Haven’t really explored the new features yet.

I’m continuing to read Stories: All-New Tales, moving on to Joe Lansdale’s tale, “The Stars Are Falling.” It’s set in East Texas (naturally) after the Great War. The main character returns from the dead, coming back to his wife and young son. He essentially abandoned them to join the fray, going via Canada to get to the European theater. Because he can’t read or write, he couldn’t communicate so for all intents and purposes he’s been dead to his family for four years. The question Lansdale is very cagey about is whether he might really be dead. The voice of these characters is interesting–they’re early 20th century, of course, but also poor, uneducated and isolated, living on a farm well away from the nearest town. Another fine entry in what is proving to be a very good anthology.

I’m just now checking out the cover art for the first time. That’s one thing about the Kindle–unless you deliberately go and look at the cover, you miss it since books open by default at the first page of text. I see a metaphor there: the pen is mightier than whatever ungodly creature that is arising from the water.

I’m still working my way through my review of The Passage. Big book–lots to write about.

I’ll be a day-tripper at ApolloCon this weekend. I’m just going in for the day on Saturday. I don’t know any of the Guests of Honor, but I do know a few fellow attendees, including Michael Bracken, Bill Crider and Lee Thomas. I’m just seeing the program for the first time–an interesting mix. There’s a writing panel with Bracken and Crider up against a “Hurricane Ike” panel at 10 a.m. There are also more acronyms than you can shake a S.T.I.C.K. at, including the ever-intriguing LARP and FILK.