Today (april 14) is the birthday of two writers, one whose work I really like (Jack McDevitt) and the other I’ve never been a fan of (James Branch Cabell). I’ll start with the latter, since he was born first. Continue reading
I guess it has. Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not. The Fourth was laid back. My wife took a few days off from work to visit her parents, and my son went with her. Since I had classes starting while she was gone, I stayed here and had the house to myself, just me and the dogs.
Things have been hectic at work. Classes started on Tuesday, and I still had seven teaching assistant slots to fill before labs started on Wednesday. That number went up before it went down, but all the positions are filled and all the labs are covered. I’ve got a good group of students in the course I’m teaching. Summer students tend to be of higher quality than the general student population, and that seems to be particularly true about this bunch. My class is every day from 8:00 to 9:50 in the morning, and they’ve done a great job of showing up on time and awake. I wonder if the quiz I started class with on Wednesday had anything to do with it….
Anyway, I’ve been a bit distracted, but I’m working on some things. I’m reading Age of Iron by Angus Watson, which is up for a Gemmell Morningstar Award. I’ve not gotten far, so I’m reserving any comments for the review. I’m also reading for my next BAF post at Black Gate. This is the Lin Carter edited anthology The Young Magicians. Now that I’ve made it through the James Branch Cabell story, I should make better progress on it.
So unless something happens, I’m probably not going to have much to post about until next week.
I’ve had a couple of posts at Black Gate recently that might be of interest to some of you.
First, I’ve reviewed the weird western What Rough Beast, but James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge. This chapbook has both a solid story as well as some superb production values. And some monsters with a surprisingly understandable motivation.
The other post is the latest in my series covering the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The topic in this one is James Branch Cabell’s Figures of Earth.
Check them out if they’re something you might be interested in.
Actually, I’m not sure what’s so merry about it, but that’s the saying, so there you go.
Finals finished up this week. I got my grades in yesterday, and spent today dealing with all the emails from the students who weren’t happy about their lab grades. I did have one student who sent me an email telling me I had done more than teach her physics this semester, I had taught her to believe in herself. That’s the sort of thing you frame. I guess some days it really is worth chewing through the straps.
I’ve been getting a little reading done, which I’ll blog about over the next few days. I’m hoping to finish Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick tonight, but I may not be able to stay awake that long. This is the sequel to Among Thieves, which was one of my favorite books the year it came out. One of the next things up is The Silver Stallion, the next volume in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. Other than that, I’ll be trying to get as many things read as possible. I’m a bit behind on what folks have been sending me, so I’m going to read amongst those titles as the fancy hits me, whether it’s fantasy, science fiction, or crime.
There are some other things, but I’ll save mentioning them for another post.