To all the guardians of light and form,

to all the gentle folk across time and space

who labor in solitude to perfect their vision,

whether by brush, pen, pencil, chisel or lens,

or voice or instrument, on paper, canvas, plastic, 

stone or shadow, light, sound or electron,

to all those with creative soul, mind and vision

who are judged, while they toil, as fools

by those who are far from their peers,

until they are finally done

and their work is called genius

by those very same judges,

I salute you.

That's from the Dedication section of my new novel, "Evanescent", just completed.

Yes, it is something of a ghost story, but really it's more about the awareness of a person involved in the arts. Any person, really. And if one is truly aware, and actively cultivates that awareness, then magic and wonder await.

Anyone a photographer? This one's especially for you!

Mexican food, in a nutshell:

A tortilla is either corn or wheat.
But a corn tortilla folded and filled is a taco,
whereas a filled wheat tortilla is a burrito.
Deep fry a burrito, it's a chimichanga.
Toast a tortilla, it's a tostada.
Roll it, it's an enchillada.
:
Your basic Tex-Mex food groups.
Cheese on top of chicken under guacamole
on top of beans under rice on top of beef.
Word of warning, avoid the jumbo prawns.
It's like Russian Roulette.
One in six will kill you.

- from "One Day" (2011) by David Nicholls.

Ahhh.. 8's the great one.

SS8, Zooce, came from a simple question that emerged from Religious Studies: if Christ came again today, how would we recognize Him? Would we, in fact, recognize Him? And what would His fate be this time around?

A host of interesting variations came from that basic kernel of an idea, and Zooce was one of the most popular of those iterations. I tried to take the fish out of water as far as I could - in this case, all the way around the globe to Venice Beach, California, where the culture is as counter as I could think of, and just plonked my Zooce down there.

Oh, and of course, why not make her the Daughter this time?

Enjoy!