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Recently I was chatting with a friend of mine, and at some point in the course of the conversation I told her about one of my favorite thriller novels of the last twenty years. It was Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell, who sadly passed away in November. I described the plot to my friend, explaining…
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This 1977 cover for Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is probably an off-beat choice for my Classic Sci-Fi Book Covers series. After all, it’s a pen-and-ink illustration, which is a very unusual choice for sci-fi art. Unusual, that is, unless you’re the great Ian Miller, who does most of his work in pencil or pen.…
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Everything you need to know about alt-rock in the 1980s can be learned from listening to four bands: The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure. I’ve featured all of these bands except The Cure, so it’s about time, especially considering that they were, in some ways, the most innovative…
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It is almost a law of nature that if you scroll through Twitter for long enough, you will run across a Star Trek meme. And, if you keep scrolling, you will eventually run into a “There are four lights!” meme. These memes are, of course, a reference to one of the most famous episodes of…
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Have you ever noticed that, at any given time, the tech bros and sci-fi nerds of the world are obsessed with one current, real-world technology. Right now, it’s AI. A few years ago, it was cryptocurrency. The topic itself changes over time, but whatever it is, they can’t stop talking about it. I’m a bit…
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(…or, Why I Leave My Christmas Lights Up Till January 5th) Author’s Note: I wrote this post some years ago. I am reposting it now because Christmas. I’m a big fan of the Brother Cadfael novels by Edith Pargeter. Brother Cadfael is a medieval monk who has two areas of expertise: botany (plant-based medicine) and…
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The brilliant singer and musician Chris Rea has passed away. I remember when I first heard this song (my favorite of his). I was in grad school in Tucson, Arizona and had a summer job teaching English at Pima Community College. I was driving there one day in July when the temperature hit 117. My…
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For some reason, I read a lot of science fiction during the holidays. Maybe this is because I loved science fiction as a kid, and I had more time to read it during the Christmas break. At any rate, this year I decided to post a list of great literary science fiction novels. I’m not…
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Well, it’s another day of the week ending Y, so it’s time for another Shameless Plug! This one is not even original, alas. Even so, it’s pretty cool that you can listen to the first three chapters of my novel, Twice the Trouble, totally free on Youtube! And it’s legal, even! (I think.)
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I had never heard of Young the Giant until a few months ago, when this song, “My Body,” popped up on the playlist at my gym. I liked the groove so much that I paused my incredibly wimpy set of curls (“Hey, I’m going for tone, dammit. TONE!”), went to my locker, got out my…
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Ash Clifton, Writer 