Book Review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This is the first time I’m reviewing a book after I met its author. In this case, I met Rothfuss at this year’s past Oddcon. It’s one thing to read a book, review it, and not meet the author until several years down the line, if ever. It’s another thing to meet someone, learn they [...]

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New Short Story: "Lavender and Chamomile" up at Big Pulp

Took a little while, but I finally got this short story sold. It’s up and running at Big Pulp Magazine.
The foundation to this story came back when Daniel was still a baby. One of the many toys he got was the quintessential teddy bear, complete with glassy eyes and button nose. One day, I was [...]

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Book Review: "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini

Sighhhhh….
Not an encouraging way to start off a review, is it?
I fought real hard not to read this book. In fact, when I borrowed a copy of it, it sat on my bookshelf for months, then materialized to my nightstand, then migrated back to my bookshelf. I read the first two pages. Put it [...]

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Oddcon Thoughts

So this past weekend, I attend my first science fiction/fantasy convention ever.
It’s not like I’ve actively avoided cons when I was living in Chicago. I knew about WindyCon and Duckon and Anime Central (my sister went to that—kudos to her). It’s just that I thought they looked sort of…weird. I had no great desire to [...]

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And it’s been saved…apparently…

Locus Science Fiction & Fantasy News: Warren Lapine Buys Realms of Fantasy
Well, that was nice and quick. I guess me mourning over it was a bit premature after all. But what does it mean? Will it remain the same, or will it change? Time will only tell. But the "first" issue will be out in [...]

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The Passing of a Great Anthology; No more Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror

In the past, I’ve done reviews for the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror that you can find on this site. Well, today, we got the news that this great anthology is no more. You can find news about it at the Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet’s Blog, and at Terry Windling’s blog.
In a nutshell, St Martin’s [...]

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“Crowntree” is up at Ideomancer!

And yet another story of mine is up to read! Yippee! And it’s at Ideomancer, of all places!
This one has a special place in my heart. It’s based off an actual tree and stone ring I saw in someone’s backyard. Seeing the tree took me back to the days of when I was a kid, [...]

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“Daughters of Sarah” up at Third Order Magazine!

Yeehaw! A new story!
I’m proud of this one because this was the first short story I worked on when I started writing again after Daniel was born. Actually, ’short’ is pretty subjective. This one’s a bit on the long side.
I got the idea for this story back when I was at Roosevelt University. One of [...]

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Interview with two black female fantasy writers

Over at Fantasy Magazine, there’s a very interesting interview of Carole McDonnell and Alaya Dawn Johnson, two fantasy authors who are both black and female. Seeing that I’m both, I found it quite liberating to hear two women like me talk about their work, Christianity and the changing state of speculative fiction to a more [...]

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Odds, Ends…and another blow to the fantasy community (RIP Robert Jordan)

It’s been quiet at the Cafe. Real quiet. It’s not that anything’s happening. On the contrary…there’s a lot.
I’ve been spending most of my time working on an article that I want to get out by the end of this week. It’s taken up quite a bit of time, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to [...]

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