It was beautiful in Los Angeles today, and the park was packed. Runners, walkers, rollerbladers, bikers, dogs, babies, you name it. I set up my podcast and started out, prepared to enjoy a crowded but gorgeous run. About 10 minutes in, two unexpected things happened at once: I found myself alone on a wooded stretch of the trail, and a coyote stepped out in front of me. She stood there, right in...
Yesterday I headed over to my local Red Cross to donate platelets. When all the paperwork was done and I was settling in to my reclining chair, getting ready to watch a movie and survive two hours of nausea, all hell broke loose. A young man a few chairs over, in the middle of his first-ever blood donation, had gone into shock. Every technician in the place swarmed to his side. As I was already...
Sunday we headed down to the Nisei Week Japanese Festival in Little Tokyo. Although there were many cultural displays (bonsai, samurai armor, calligraphy), I was mostly there to hang with my friends, enjoy the Taiko gathering, and eat as much as possible. This dude sat in the middle of the street, guarding the closing ceremonies location. From 2010 Photobook Mmmm, mochi! I’d never had fresh...
Last weekend I attended a working retreat run by my agency, Barry Goldblatt Literary. “Camp Barry” — which is actually run by Barry, Joe, and Beth — took place at Club Med Sandpiper in Florida and consisted of communal meals, awesome discussion groups, and late night pool parties. (I would mention the ubiquitous “chocolate bread,” but that might make you too...
Last week, I auditioned for a voice part in a full-length animated (direct-to-DVD) movie, and got the part! Yesterday, I showed up at the recording studio for my 8:30am call time and headed into my first professional (SAG) voice acting role. You know what’s weird? Being called “the talent.” Also weird was not doing all the set up like I used to do for Cosmic Toast green screen...
Yesterday, for the first time, I had a voice acting audition in front of people I didn’t know. With acting — even just the voice-only type — there is zero room for self-doubt. You’ve got to go for it, put yourself out there. You’ve got to nod when you’re given direction and assure everyone that, yes, you can do it. You’ve got to be angry when the dialogue...
Holy cow, that was a great workshop. Flagstaff is a wonderful city, one I could see myself living in some day. But really, it was the people who brought the magic. I’ve never been surrounded by such a universally smart, funny, talented, kind, and generous group of fellow writers. (Except at Blue Heaven, of course, but that goes without saying.) You know you’re with great writers when...
Next week I’ll be attending Starry Heaven, a week-long novel workshop in Flagstaff, with 10 other science fiction and fantasy writers. (In 2008, I brought the first draft of ABOVE WORLD to the original Blue Heaven workshop on Kelley’s Island, Ohio.) Starry Heaven has already been a huge success, and it hasn’t even started yet. The novel submission deadline got me writing my work...
Saturday was close to the Perfect Day. The weather was cool, clear, and breezy. We drove down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park (which is not a zoo) where we were regularly confronted by fuzzy animals, cute animals, fierce animals, and animal babies. Resistance was futile. First, my fellow adventurers: Samantha, Chris (the tall one), and Chris (the slightly less tall one with birds on his arm)...
What’s better than a local curling clinic? A local curling clinic that takes place at ICE STATION VALENCIA! (Having recently watched Ice Station Zebra, the jokes never stopped coming.) I’ve been fascinated by curling since the Olympics four years ago, and this year I got to watch almost every televised match. But my friend Erik and I were not the only people to catch curling fever. We...
Every Lunar New Year, I head to LA’s Chinatown to enjoy the Golden Dragon Parade. The red lanterns, the music, the people crammed in every store and eatery — it’s a wonderful expression of LA’s energy and multiculturism.
From 2010 Photobook
All the hubbub over Super Bowl commercials has reminded me of one of my favorite commercials ever, Discovery Channel’s “The World is Just Awesome.” Imagine my happy surprise to find there’s also a sequel!
So, if you haven’t seen these before (and even if you have) please watch. Your sense of wonder will thank you.
I thought I understood small towns. I went to college in Ithaca — a town listed as “rural” in my college guidebook. But the tiny college town of Fredonia makes Ithaca look like a bustling metropolis. At first I was shocked by the general lack of necessities. (By “necessities” I mean: book stores, coffee shops, and movie theaters. There was one of each, although for a...
I made chocolate chip cookies. Plain ol’ chocolate chippers. And I made them FROM SCRATCH. Now, to understand how amazing this is, please understand that I had to go out and buy flour, eggs, and chocolate chips to make this happen. I already had sugar (Hello, coffee!) and baking soda (Hello, drain unclogger!). But did you catch that? I didn’t already have flour, because I never use it...
As I may have mentioned, our all-new episodes of Slangman’s World have been airing on Georgia Public Broadcasting (the 3rd largest PBS affiliate in the US) since October 5th. But now, for the first time, you can see three of the 90-second episodes on our Slangman’s World website! (Just click on the “Videos” icon. Flash required.) Aside from enjoying some awesome animation...
October has always been my favorite month of the year: autumn, Halloween, hot chocolate, apple cider, sweaters, leaves changing, blazing fires in the fireplace, the promise of snow… what’s not to love? (Yes, I’m aware that almost none of my favorite October things actually occur in southern California. Thank goodness for sense memories, is all I can say.) Well, this year, I...
I celebrated my birthday in two very important, very different ways this year. 1. I stayed up the night before my birthday writing and rewriting the final scenes of my novel until they felt “right.” Then, scarcely able to sleep, I was up early the morning of my birthday formatting and sending out my first-ever agent queries. This is a profound step for me personally, and I...
As some of you know, I have recently landed a voice acting part on one of my studio’s animated shows. I’m proud of myself for trying out in the first place, and frankly astonished that I got the part. (And even more astonished that they seem to be serious about me keeping it.) Today was my first official recording session. Up until now, I’d never done any acting (unless you...
A few weeks ago, Chris and I met Sam and Chris in Long Beach at the aquarium for a day of sea-creature viewing. (Here’s Sam’s account of our trip, and here’s Chris’.) What a fantastic day! The Aquarium of the Pacific looked small, but was surprisingly nice. The tanks were clean, the glass clear. Lots of great photography options, even with my crappy point-and-shoot camera...
Geek legend Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple, aka “The Woz”) visited our studio for a few hours today! Alas, I’ll be keeping most of the details to myself, but I will dwell on this: He and his (awesome) assistant brought two Segways! I have always wanted to ride a Segway, ever since I eagerly awaited the unveiling of the “invention that would change the world” back...
I bought my condo over two years ago. In fact, it was at WorldCon in Anaheim just 3 days before I moved in (on my birthday) that the awesome Ling gave me a gift card for Home Depot. Many of you had contributed, and I remember tearing up when she told me. Today, I finally finished off the gift card! Yes, it’s taken me that long to get around to painting. But the same three paint chips have...
Last week I attended Blue Heaven, a novel workshop held on Kelley’s Island, Ohio. Here’s how the workshop worked: For the first few days, the 12 of us sat in a big circle and critiqued the first 50 pages of everyone else’s novel. From Thursday on, we broke into small groups to discuss full novels. Each of us read a minimum of two other novels. At night and between sessions, we...
I know I’ve been quiet lately. I know I’m way behind on returning phone calls and emails. I know you’ve heard it all before. Still, this has been one of the busiest, craziest months I’ve had in years. At the end of March, I was invited to attend Blue Heaven, a week-long novel workshop conducted out on Kelley’s Island in Ohio. I had about three days to upload the...
Last weekend, I had the good fortune to join Ling and her fiancee Chris on an adventure to the San Diego Zoo. It was hot. Bloody hot. But, after the acquisition of hats, we had a fantastic time surveying the park and taking way too many pictures. I don’t even want to tell you how many pictures I have of the first reptile house. Let’s just say it’s over a hundred, and leave it at...