The Middle of the Dark

Funny look at author photos.

Lots of good reasons to look up this week.

Most bizzare, fascinating story I've read in ages.

The book is now up at Barnes and Noble now too. That image is just a place holder, by the way.

I've read a couple articles lately, including this one and one in the current issue of P&W, that essentially say: fiction is dead, books are dead, so write whatever the hell you want. Take chances - no one's going to read it anyway. It's basically a roundabout way of saying be yourself. It's disappointing that it takes the perceived irrelevance of fiction to inspire writers to do what they want; that may be why fiction is irrelevant to some people. Following the herd will always be an issue in art, as it is in life; art will always be 'dead.' It's died now several times since I've been alive. My first novel comes out in November, and I have no expectation it will be any kind of success. It's definitely a book I'd write, one I'd like to read. My only hope is that I get the opportunity to keep writing the books I want to, and that somewhere in the storm of voices I'm heard.

Got to watch this.

Pressure rises on pastor who wants to burn Quran - Yahoo! News It occured to me today it's no accident we see a sudden wave of Islamophobia at the same time there's rampaging doubt in the far right on the President's faith and citizenship. There's an ugliness to all this which is unAmerican but sadly not unfamilair. We've seen this kind of junk before and we'll see it again, no doubt. The only solace is that we've shouted it down time and again. This pastor needs to listen to God when he prays.

After a lot of stops and starts, construction at Ground Zero is on pace to have the memorial finished for the anniversary next year. Just last year, it seemed there may be nothing there for years. The image of the footprint of the building - realized again for the first time in nine years - brought me back to that day in a very visceral way. With all this controversy about the mosque, I wonder what next year will be like, with the memorial there to open our scars, or make them concrete. Will we bleed again next year? Will it let us move on finally?

Scientists discover recipe for water in space - CNN.com I don't know what's cooler - the possibilities this presents us for the future, or all the stories you could get out of this.