I wrote long & hard today & the story is now 9 words shorter. Gardner Dozois once told me that Le Guin's elegant line could only have been obtained by writing purple prose and “starking it down.” So I have removed adjectives, melodrama, cleverness, & other detritus. What remains is clean and clear.
I just now realized, with a start of astonishment, that I have been writing and published so long that I no longer have to avoid reading authors who wrote stories like that I'm working on, for fear of influence. I'll just serenely continue to write like myself.
Finally read Greene's The Quiet American. A terrific novel and, by today's standards, short. Published in 1955. How anybody in the Kennedy administration could have read it and then supported getting involved in Vietnam is entirely beyond me.
I saw Dear Evan Hansen today at the Arden. The actors were all exemplary. But as they took their curtain call, Marianne leaned over and said, "The play failed to stick the landing."
Watching The Poseidon Adventure for the first time. It's painful to see Ernest Borgnine putting all his acting chops into a script that--what's the polite word?--sucks.
Cocktail Hour! Tonight: Gin and Tonics made with Boodles and Fever Tree Mediterranean. Accompanied by homemade gravlox and crackers.
A few words of reminiscence about Jane Yolen, who is no longer with us, but really ought to be.
floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2026/06/jane...
Basil, Pepper, Salt, and Garlic Greens sold through at 8 p.m. last night. It was a fun day.
Oops. I accidentally shared spoof info on Milli Vanilli. The surviving performer IS in the group and trying to make a comeback. Meanwhile, the musicians whose voices were lip synched say they are the real and only Milli Vanilli.
The afternoon is over. Seven copies of Basil, Pepper, Salt, Garlic Greens: a Year in a Witch's Kitchen remain unsold.
Further reports tomorrow.
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick
. I was talking with Jane Yolen once, in her house in St. Andrews, Scotland. I told her how much I admired her prolific output of books--...
