Since April, I have been applying to jobs in four Maryland counties. Interestingly, Anne Arundel and Montgomery were silent. Howard, where I live, brought me in for a first (of three) round interview but the competition is such that I did not progress further.Baltimore County, though, called me for five interviews. The first was in […]
Growing up, I got to see many concerts and pride myself on having seen most of the major rock and roll acts of the 1970s and 1980s. Among the bands I saw the most often was the Blue Öyster Cult, which, as revealed previously, features my uncle, Eric Bloom.The last time I saw them play […]
I love Shore Leave, but regular readers here know that.This year, there were a few takeaways, both related to, sadly, age. First, I can no longer stay up to all hours one night and be up and functional art 8:30 for a business breakfast. I handled the breakfast just fine, but by 10 p.m. without […]
Yesterday was a nice day.Spent the morning working on a short story and then took the train to the city in time for a weekly lunch I haven’t attended in months. I got to see a lot of colleagues I normally only see on line and was treated to lunch by Aaron Rosenberg (a swell […]
It’s hard to believe that Shore Leave is turning 35 this year. My first time down was for Shore Leave 3 and it was pretty much just me and Howard Weinstein. This year’s guest line up has first time visits from William Shatner, Brent Spiner and Saul Rubinek which is pretty cool.The number of authors […]
I seem to have fallen into the habit of twice a year pausing to reflect. Obviously, the end of a calendar year is a good time for that and apparently, so it my birthday.I am floored by the more than 500 birthday wishes piling up on Facebook. They come from all walks of my life, […]
Some 20 years ago, Alan Gold and I were trolling the aisles of the Licensing Show. He had never been and as an editor at DC Comics, he wanted to see what might be worth licensing. By this point, DC had acquired Star Trek and were open to other properties if editors got enthused. He […]
What should have been a 45-minute minute meeting dragged to almost twice that length last night. The RTM met last night with one of the lightest agendas I’ve seen. My guess, entering the room, was that the length of the meeting would be entirely determined by the First Selectman’s State of the Town address.Ken Flatto’s […]
In talking with Paul Kupperberg last week, he noted that it was difficult for him to write The Lone Ranger for Moonstone’s prose anthology because the character was so vanilla. After all, Fran Stryker saw him as the perfect role model for the families listening to the radio drama, first on WXYZ and then coast […]
When the Mets first got Kris Benson from the Pittsburgh Pirates, I applauded the deal thinking he’d rise to the occasion of pitching in New York. Instead, last year he pitched 10-8 with a 4.13 ERA and wasn’t overly impressive. Mets GM Omar Minaya seemed to have lost confidence in Benson and spent November and […]