by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 16, 2017 | General
“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” Basil Caesarea. Why am I quoting a Saint? (I was going to use Galatians 6: 7-9 but that particular quote seemed more ominous than encouraging so I went with Basil.) But back to the question — why a quote about good deeds? Because they really do come back and reward you and I have a living, breathing example. Tuesday afternoon I attended George’s...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 1, 2017 | General
I hate to even link to this Tweet. The man is vile on every level, but you have to see the genesis of what came out of Trump’s mouth today. So a few days ago David Duke, former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and all around racist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi tweeted the following. David Duke @DrDavidDuke President Trump, do you think it might be the Jews themselves making these calls to get sympathy to push their ethnic agenda? @POTUS (I removed the link. I refuse to link to this...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 21, 2017 | TV & Movies
I ended up seeing ARRIVAL and ROGUE ONE relatively close together. I liked both movies a lot, and have been mulling over the similarities and differences for the past month or more. I think I’m ready to take a stab at talking about them. ***********************************USUAL WARNING SPOILERS!!!!******************* In many ways they have the same theme — courage and sacrifice are sometimes worth the pain. In one film the sacrifice is personal. In the other epic, but at their core that’s...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 2, 2017 | General
Last night the campus of Berkley was roiled with protests that turned violent, led to objects being thrown, fires being set, and ultimately the cancellation of a speech by noted alt-right gadfly and baby Nazi Milo Yiannopoulos. This is not a productive way to resist, people. Let us not fall into the trap of the anti-war protestors during Vietnam who turned a complacent middle class against them, led their, perhaps, persuadable parents to vote for and support Richard Nixon in a backlash...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 30, 2017 | General
A friend of mine just posted a long and very moving post about his father who managed to get to America out of the ashes of the Holocaust. It got me thinking about these white nationalists and the angry Trump voters who want America for the Americans and would shout out the Nazi tainted slogan “America First”. You want to measure who gets to be here. How about this? My father’s ancestors came to New York (what was then called New Amsterdam) around 1690. Dad thought that...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 13, 2017 | About Writing
So Tor has a special on a Wild Cards book bundle. If you’re interested to jump in here’s a way to start. Wild Cards Book Bundle. There is a new Youtube interview up where a number of us talk about Wild Cards. Wild Cards Interviews. And finally here is the cover for Tor’s reissue of ACE IN THE HOLE. The amazing and really creepy cover is by the very talented Michael Komarck.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 10, 2017 | Blog
We have a Wild Cards Website, and every so often various writers who play in our shared sandbox write blog posts. Stephen Leigh who has been with us since the beginning of the series has done a blog post about one of our most iconic villain — Senator Gregg Hartmann. It certainly feels relevant at this particular moment. You can read it here: Pulling Strings; the Saga of Gregg Hartmann aka Puppetman
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 9, 2017 | About Writing
I’m re-reading Tolkien’s brilliant Lord of the Rings trilogy for, I think, the eighth time. I first read the books when I was a kid visiting Los Angeles with my father. My dad had business meetings and in an effort to keep me amused, Rodney Pantages’s wife, Lois, took me off to a bookstore and said, “Pick any book you want.” I fixated on those amazing covers and cajoled until Lois agreed to buy me all four books, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I then...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 2, 2017 | General
So January 20th looms and for many people it’s a terrifying prospect. People don’t know how to stand for the things we support and cherish in this republic. So here’s a suggestion. Join the ACLU. Here is but a sample of the litigation and advocacy they have undertaken: The Scopes trial – the right to teach evolution in public science classrooms Supreme Court Cases: Korematsu — challenging Japanese American internment Miranda — the right to remain silent...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 22, 2016 | About Writing
So I’m working on the fourth EDGE book — tentatively titled THE EDGE OF INFINITY. I’m writing on the plane coming home to New Mexico and I suddenly realize that this book is set about fourteen years after the events in THE EDGE OF DAWN. All three of these books have been very closely tied to the real world, and real world events and I suddenly realized that Donald Trump will be president and that is going to have a profound effect on the state of the world in 2031. Advances...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 22, 2016 | Wild Cards
Carrie Vaughn, one of our amazing writers has given us a terrific story about the character she created for Fort Freak. This is all about Rikki before she became a cop, and it’s a lovely slice of life about Jokertown. Not everything in a superhero universe has to be about saving New York, or the world, or the universe. Here’s the link The Thing About Growing Up in Jokertown Enjoy.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 17, 2016 | General
Last night I finished reading a terrific short story by my friend Connie Willis. She is a wonderful writer, and also a terrific human being. I’m not generally a reader of short fiction. I love novels where I can wallow and spend a lot of time with the characters, but Connie is one of the masters of the short form. Right now I’m reading a collection called The Best of Connie Willis, and I hit the story “Inside Job”. It’s about a skeptic writer dealing with a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 12, 2016 | General
If you visit my website and come to my blog and post a comment, and it attacks my friends — one in particular — you know who I am talking about so pay attention trolls. I will file your comment in a round file called trash. You do again and I’ll block you. I moderate all comments so you aren’t going to have an opportunity to spread your nastiness on my site. Because it’s my site. My rules. My friend. My best friend. So take your entitled little self off...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 12, 2016 | TV & Movies
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them What can you say about a movie that is kind and sweet? I say hooray and what a pleasant change from CGI violence and redemptive violence as the solution to every problem, and manufacturing conflict between friends and natural allies. (I’m looking at you Captain America: Civil War and Batman versus Superman.) ******************************** HERE COME SPOILERS************************ First the few quibbles I did have with the film. I don’t think the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 21, 2016 | TV & Movies
I got caught up on a few movies the past couple of weeks. I thought I’d try to gather my thoughts about all of them in one place rather then single posts about each. YES, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. THE ACCOUNTANT — this was almost a good movie. it wasn’t horrible, but it went completely sideways in the final third. When it was about an autistic child then man trying to cope in the world, and when it was about forensic accounting it was really interesting and well done. And...
