The Fisherman made me a fan of John Langan. There is something in the combination he weaves of cosmic horror and emotional grounding, with a hefty dose of simple erudition, that hits with me. When I learned he had a new collection coming out I…
Continue reading...I did a foolish thing. I not only agreed to help plan IJET-33, an international translation conference (in a reduced role, but still) during a period when I was supposed to be finishing up the manuscript for my latest novel translation, I also volunteered to…
Continue reading...I seem to be catching up on myself with these posts (and messing up the numbering) but here is another of my Japanese language columns for the Setouchi Times newspaper. It's about autumn in Japan versus autumn in my home. It's a bit of fluff,…
Continue reading...The next in my newspaper column series is about my finally successful search for a crested kingfisher, or ヤマセミ in Japanese. It's an elusive bird that seems to be only active in the early morning, so it took a while to get a picture. But…
Continue reading...It's inevitable, I guess, to get retrospective at this time of year. I've more or less stopped keeping careful track of things like media consumption—no Goodreads lists for me, thank you—but it's still sometimes interesting to review. And so, here is a non-comprehensive list of…
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