Writing
6.18.17 On poker, ghost dads and fashioning your own father figures
Here is possibly my most enduring memory of my father: We are sitting around the kitchen table in the house I lived in from around age 8 until age 11 – the one that’s fixed in my long-term memory as The House. Everyone has a Memory House; it’s the one our imagination goes to when…
Read More6.01.17 On being a foodaholic, and forever 0 days sober
My name is Randee and I am a foodaholic. That sounds funny at first because: food! We all love food! Food is delicious and we have to eat it at least once a day and we focus our social experiences around it and it nourishes us and makes us grow and besides which, did I…
Read More03.10.17 I Hate Book Reviews: C.S.E. Cooney’s ‘The Bone Swans of Amandale’
I have spent many years being critical. Of movies, of TV shows, of music albums. It’s part of my job – it’s part of what I do on a daily basis as an entertainment writer. But I’ve never wanted to be a book reviewer. I discovered that by being critical of so much entertainment I…
Read More01.31.17 Beyond civil disobedience: Why we need bridge-burners to smoke out Washington’s monsters
Earlier today, I read a Tweet from editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden that said, in part, “Protests are great and should continue but shaming the unshameable isn’t a plan.” He’s right. And we’re going about this all the wrong way. Part of the problem – the true cognitive dissonance many of us have been feeling since…
Read More01.23.17 Kick out the White House press corps? Oh, please do!
The Orwellian playbook the new White House administration has been using now has a new phrase: “alternative facts.” That’s how spokesperson Kellyanne Conway characterized new press secretary Scott Spicer’s assertion of attendance at Friday’s inaugural of the new POTUS. But she also had this gem to add, speaking to “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd:…
Read More01.11.17 Where to find me: Boston in January! (Aka: Arisia)
For those of you who are intentionally or not-so-intentionally heading up to Boston for the long MLK weekend, I would like to invite you to check out Arisia, the biggest science-fiction and fantasy convention in the Northeast, and visit me at one of five, count ’em five, panels! While the whole convention is terrific and…
Read More11.28.16 ‘All actors love having a death scene’
“The producers said I had too much blood with her, and they said it’s unrealistic. But two female actresses came forward and said, ‘This has happened to me and it’s three times as much, leave it alone.’ That was pretty powerful.”
Read More10.24.16 A warning to others (or) how not to get published in an anthology
This is my favorite Demotivational Poster: As a writer, there are any number of ways to break into the business. The best ones involve sales of stories and books and notice and applause by the world. But all writers have at least one of the other kinds of stories. The kind where even as you’re living…
Read More10.10.16 Berry, flashin’ those high beams
We all deserve the same level of treatment, the same level of respect. And if I could guarantee that no one would ever give me a pass again for whatever superficial element of my appearance might make them decide to do so — so that everyone else’s appearance would also not matter when it comes to violations of the law — I would happily pay the fine.
Read More10.03.16 Debates and ‘Denial’: ‘There aren’t enough films about teamwork’
The fact is that your vote counts, even in a state where we “know” the result ahead of time. It counts as much as your getting vaccinated does. It counts as much as you paying the right amount of taxes. When you don’t, when many don’t, and we’re all made weaker for it.
Read More