My husband had lower back pain for years—and, finally, he went to the doctor and actually did a bunch of exercises. He now goes between a standing desk and a traditional one—and, yep, back problems are gone.

Yep. I was bored at first, but kept watching because I was knitting and wanted a little distraction, then midway, I got into it and by the end I was completely hooked and rewatched the whole thing. It’s definitely flawed, but it’s also not like anything else I’ve ever seen—the filming everywhere is part of it and the…

Yep. I think once the plot starts happening and Nomi starts having to think and maneuver, the show improves a lot. It does help that she has a really awesome girlfriend. Honestly, I’d rather be in a sensate with Amanita than Nomi any day.

Sun gets to come in though and kung-fu everyone though.

No. I’ve never been. Many of my friends have been. No “thinking” about it. It’s an appallingly common crime. I have a young teen daughter and knowing what I know about how common rape is and how difficult it can be to prosecute is as scary as fuck.

Yeah, well no one said that the innovator had to *like* the innovation. But, boy, are authors even allowed to write one-off fantasy stories anymore?

Yeah, I said in another post that there’s no one right answer to this. One of the ideas about literary development that I’ve been taken with in recent years is that of dialogue. LeGuin starts the dialogue with Left Hand of Darkness and both Delany and Russ respond—and critique—with their own works. Both of them…

Ah, thanks. Interesting. Still think of him as more in the horror fantasy realm—some of the ones about dead/dying wives/girlfriends—still some of the creepiest stories ever.

Oh, there’s no one answer to this, is there?

LeGuin’s Left Hand of Darkness predates Delaney’s Dhalgren, so I’m giving gender-as-an-SF-topic innovation to her, though I think you can make an argument for Sam Delaney and Joanna Russ, who I think were both more daring in their treatment.

I give Poe credit more for the invention of the detective story and the psychological horror story—though there are stories and novels that predate him that fit that niche. I can’t think of anything he wrote that would actually be science fiction.

Russia’s been in a state of population decline for a while—lower birth rates and lower life expectancy.

Yep. I don’t like reading anything longer than an article on a screen—I don’t take in the information as well and I like being able to physically keep track of where I am. I don’t worry about losing a given book. I still go to one of the few remaining bookstores around here and buy books at the regular independent…

Charlie, thanks again for one of your clear, compassionate articles about the writing process *and* for the mention of Octavia Butler (since I’m one of a couple of people who’s always praising Butler in the comments.) Just thought I’d mentioned that Octavia Butler wasn’t always Octavia Butler. She had two stories…

Yep—there’s an art to giving a good critique. I try never to crush someone, even if I think a piece is truly bad, but I’ve made the mistake of seeing clearly how a piece isn’t working and then telling the writer that just a leetle too baldly. When you get paid to write, you get used to criticism (you may not like it,…

I love my citrus trees—they’re evergreens, so they don’t suddenly go bare and the fruit on them lasts a long time, so you don’t have to pick everything all at once. I say put in the lemon and lime ASAP and take care of the rest of the landscaping later. Or, actually, just get a couple and grow them in pots, then plant…

Temperate is relative, though parts of northern Arizona are truly beautiful. By my reckoning, any place that pretty much requires AC for a normal life isn’t temperate.

Yeah, if you think about the elms and the chestnuts, there was an insane amount of environmental devastation in the first part of the 20th century that’s not quite discussed as such.

Yeah, I thought of that too, but I figured I was already raining enough on the parade.

One more reason to keep working on the revival of the American chestnut. A huge hunk of the east coast used to be covered in chestnuts and it was an incredibly useful tree—food source, building source—and then, wham, chestnut blight did a major number on them. At an earlier point of time, the mass die-off would have…