Dennis was also a good friend. Before the apocalypse of 2020, we held an annual party at our house, and Dennis and his wife Kat always attended. He was always a joy to talk to, always with a fun anecdote from his many years in this crazy world.

I was disappointed to see that I had no good pictures of Dennis. The best I could come up with is the one on top of this blog entry, which is of the back of his head. Sigh.

Yesterday, we came home a fantastic JordanCon. Nominally a Wheel of Time fan convention, it’s also a very good writers and readers convention. I was there to do panels, mostly on the writing track, and also sell and sign books. Oh, and see people. One of the fun things about JordanCon is that it is full of writers, many of whom I see at Dragon Con (which is also held in Atlanta), but JordanCon is smaller and less crazy than Dragon, so the conversations are longer and in more depth than they can be in the loonybin of Dragon.

It was wonderful to see folks, and also to meet new readers and old readers and all that good stuff.

The panels were especially good: various talks on the craft of writing, from world-building to using writing to address social issues to creating an interesting cast and a ton more. I also did a reading and a panel on Farscape.

Of note in the reading: besides reading the first chapter of Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD, I also read “Order Up,�� my story in the upcoming Weird Tales #371. The latter is of note because that reading was a rehearsal of sorts: I’m going to be reading the story for the audio edition of WT371! While I have done some voiceover stuff here and there �� notably for the audio podcasts HG World, The Dome, and Gypsy Audio �� and I love doing readings, I’ve never done a professional audio reading before. I really hope that this will lead to more audio stuff in the future��..

On top of all that, I had a very productive meeting with a publisher that should turn into a new project very soon. More on that once the paperwork is done.

This week I have two short stories I have to write, and I also need to get back to karate class. Plus it’s Wrenn’s birthday Friday!

Here are some pics from JordanCon:

An excerpt:

It’s easy to forget, especially given the ridiculous “feud�� in fandom between B5 and Deep Space Nine (a feud that was fueled by J. Michael Straczynski his own self), that Straczynski has always been a Star Trek fan. He pitched a Trek show to Paramount back in the day, and one of his comics credits is a Trek comic for DC.

But the best evidence that Straczynski is a Trek fan is this episode, because this is totally a Star Trek story. Strange alien that folks assume is dangerous, but turns out to be friendly, and the problem is resolved, not with violence, but with conversation and compassion—that’s Trek 101, from “�� to .

I’m going to have a table in the authors alley section, and I’ll also be doing a mess of programming:

Friday

2.30-3.30pm: “The Dance of Inspiration and Discipline: Balancing Creative Spark with Consistent Effort,�� w/Carrie Callahan, Marc Alan Edelheidt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Stone Sanchez, and Sammie Trinidad (Conference Center)

5.30-6.30pm: “The Architect’s blueprint: Worldbuilding Foundations �� Geography, Ecology, and History,�� w/Bill Fawcett, Rob Grimoire, Emily Krempholtz, and Stone Sanchez (Conference Center)

10-11pm: “Theme and Storytelling in Other Mediums,�� w/Rob Grimoire, Kyoko M., Melissa Olthoff, Stone Sanchez, and R.R. Virdi (Conference Center)

Saturday

10-11am: reading from Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Book 1 (Collaboration Studio)

5.30-6.30pm: “Weaving Emotion into Words: Crafting Prose that Resonates with Readers,�� w/A.J. Hartley, Sheree Renee Thomas, Sammie Trinidad, Mia Tsai, and Marisa Wolf (Conference Center)

8.30-9.30pm: “Dramatis Personae: Building an Authentic Cast,�� w/Marc Alan Edelheidt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Melilssa Olthoff, Sammie Trinidad, and Marisa Wolf (Conference Center)

Sunday

11.30am �� 12.30pm: “The Power of Speculative Settings: Exploring Social Issues Through a Fictional Lens,�� w/A.J. Hartley, Kyoko M., Marshall J. Moore, Sammie Trinidad, and R.R. Virdi (Conference Center)

1-2pm: “The Echo Chamber Effect: How Our Biases Shape Our Worlds,�� w/Gabriella Buba, Chuck Gannon, Venessa Giunta, and Stone Sanchez (Conference Center)

Looking forward to seeing folks there!

An excerpt:

As ever, both Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik are superb. I especially love the way Jurasik plays Mollari’s verbal evisceration of Vir’s report, which is told with his usual bombastic semi-folksy humor. (He claims Vir shows the most political naïveté since Lord Jarno, whose speech was so pathetic it was considered that he be sterilized so there was no danger of him reproducing. Then they remembered who his wife was and realized it wouldn’t be an issue.)

Which makes it hit that much harder when G’Kar drops Vir like a sack of potatoes and tortures Mollari.

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Book 1: The Thin Blue Ley-Line

Walking the Wider Web: A Fan’s Journey Through One of Comics�� Greatest Series, with my essay “Together Again for the Millionth Time: Spidey and the Human Torch��

Phenomenons: The Wind and Fire, with my story “Blinded by the Light��

Multiverse of Mystery, with my story “The Norwood Contractor��

Farscape Books 1-2, with my comic books Farscape Vol. 1 #1-4, Farscape: Strange Detractors #1-4, Farscape: Gone and Back #1-4, Farscape Vol. 2 #1-24 (all with Rockne S. O’Bannon), Farscape: D’Argo’s Lament #1-4, Farscape: D’Argo’s Trial #1-4, and Farscape: D’Argo’s Quest #1-4

An Assembly of Monsters, with my stories “The Immoral Immortal�� and “When Winzy Met Verney: The Mortal Immortal Encounters the Last Man��

The Green Hornet & Kato: Detroit Noir City, with my story “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting��

The batch came out really really good and I’m very happy with it. This will enhance our pasta for months to come. (Most of what you see in the last picture is now in the freezer. (If you want the recipe, .)

Today is Wrenn’s and my eighth wedding anniversary, which means we’ve been married for as long as we were together before the wedding. Sixteen years we’ve been together, and it’s now the relationship of mine that’s lasted the longest. I can also safely say I’ve never been happier than I have been these past sixteen years. Happy anniversary, my love!

This morning we went to Little Italy to buy tonight’s dinner fixins: shrimp, salmon, lettuce, and a lemon. We also had cappuccino and pastry for breakfast at DeLillo’s, because of course we did. Today we both have work to do. Tonight, we make the salmon and shrimp and have a quiet evening at home eating yummy food and watching TV together.

Hope y’all have a good Tuesday!

Saturday, we went to Glenn & Brandy’s for a rare in-person poker game (we’ve been mostly playing online over Zoom and using the playingcards.io site for cards and chips since 2020), which was delightful, especially since I got birthday cake out of it! Glenn & Brandy got a Carvel ice cream cake and an Oreo cake! Alas, I wound up down $4.85 on the night, but it was money well spent to spend time with some of my closest friends.

Today we went to Trattoria Tra Di Noi on 187th Street here in da Bronx. The restaurant, which is one of our favorites, is owned and operated by Chef Marco, who used to be Sophia Loren’s personal chef, and these days makes fucking amazing food. Among the specials that we had today were short ribs over risotto (that was me), roast goat, veal chop with mushrooms, and baked manicotti. Plus appetizers ranged from prosciutto & melon (that was also me) to fried calamari to chicken soup, and dessert included tartufo, flan, Italian cheesecake, and cappuccino-flavored gelato (me again). The picture above was taken by one of the staff at Tra Di Noi.

Tonight, I wrote up this week’s B5, which will go up probably on Tuesday (Reactor Magazine is closed on Monday). This week will be spent working on both Dragon Precinct Origins and my story for the PRISM anthology and also getting ready for , for which we are flying to Atlanta stupid early Thursday morning. (I’ll be posting my schedule for that tomorrow or Tuesday �� still waiting to hear on a couple of program items��..)

Oh yes, one more item of note: my favorite birthday present this year came from ToniAnn & Kyle: a jar of fucks to give! So now if I’m having trouble giving a fuck, I’ve got spares!

On this day in 1906, a brutal earthquake ravaged San Francisco.

On this day in 1923, Yankee Stadium opened. My paternal grandfather, Gildo DeCandido, then a teenager, attended the game.

On this day in 1938, Action Comics #1 was published, featuring a story by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster featuring a guy in red and blue with an S on his chest who went on to become a rather important figure in popular culture.

On this day in 1969, GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido gave birth to a boy whom she and her husband, Robert DeCandido, named Keith.

And on this day today, I’m celebrating my 56th birthday.

There’s a lot that’s bad about life right now. My country is currently being run by a criminal. Wrenn’s and my financial situation could be a lot better.

But today I want to focus on the good stuff. For one thing, it’s only 12.30pm as I type this, and I’ve already gotten more than 400 birthday wishes on Facebook alone. Between my Facebook timeline, direct messages on several different platforms, text messages, phone calls, and e-mails, I’ve already received a veritable shit-ton of birthday greetings, and the day ain’t over yet!

More to the point, I have a ridiculous number of loved ones, I have incredibly supportive fans, and just in general, I have a magnificent community of amazing humans who are part of my life in some way or other, from family both blood and chosen to friends all over the globe to people who read my work to colleagues in the field to all the folks in the dojo.

I’m doing what I love for a living, I live with a wonderful wife and two incredibly affectionate and sweet cats, I’m in excellent physical shape thanks to 20+ years of karate training, which enables me to live an active and healthful life. I’m insanely busy, but it’s a fun busy, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Today I’m going to my parents�� house, where my mother will be making her famous lasagne, and I will celebrate with immediate family. I will have to do some work today, but I also plan to spend a certain amount of time relaxing in front of the TV.

This weekend will include an in-person poker game for the first time in ages, and Easter dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Little Italy.

Happy birthday to me!

An excerpt:

On the one hand, I love the idea of putting a political officer on B5, and I wish the assignment was permanent, as that creates all kinds of fun possibilities—particularly the disposition of that character later this season during a particularly big status quo change. On the other hand, this particular political officer outstayed her welcome pretty quickly, and the fact that she won’t return comes as something of a relief. On the third hand, her reasons for being recalled to Earth make no sense. If anything, the release of the Clark-and-Morden footage would make it more imperative for there to be an EarthGov watchdog on B5.

Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD. Book 1, The Thin Blue Ley-Line is . I’m waiting to see the copy-edited manuscript and page proofs, and I still don’t know who’s doing the audio reading yet, but things are progressing, and the book is on track to be out on 28 October. I’ve started the process of plotting Book 2, though whether or not that happens will depend on the success of Book 1. (So please ? Pretty please?) In addition, a short-story prequel to the novel, entitled “The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs,�� will be appearing somewhere cool around the same time the book comes out. (I’ll be announcing where as soon as I have the go-ahead.)

Dragon Precinct. I’ve started work on the stories for Dragon Precinct: Origins �� I was supposed to start a bit sooner, but all my travel in March combined with getting COVID at the end of March has put me a bit behind schedule. But I’ll be working on these over the course of the next month. I also owe Phoenix Precinct Kickstarter supporters a short story, which will happen, um, soon. The next novel will be Manticore Precinct, but I’m honestly not sure when, exactly, that, and the next short-story collection, More Tales from Dragon Precinct, will happen. Not until 2026 at the earliest��

The Adventures of Bram Gold. I’m ruminating on the plot for Book 3 in the series, which I’m hoping to have out in 2026. I also am ruminating on the plot for another Systema Paradoxa novella, this one involving a Lariosaurus, that will also feature Valentina Perrone. I also owe Feat of Clay Kickstarter supporters a short story, which will also happen, um, soon.

Star Hoppers. After being moribund for two years, this series of science fiction novellas is back on. I just last night finished Book 7 (which I started in 2023, gulp), and once that goes off to the person running the project, we’ll figure out what’s happening next. I’m hoping that the plan is to keep the series going. As soon as I can say how this will be published, I’ll let y’all know.

Collaborations with Dr. Munish K. Batra. We’re still shopping Pigman around. Meantime, the comic book adaptation of Animal is proceeding apace. The first four scripts are written, the artwork is complete through to issue #3 (with JK Woodward working on #4’s art even as we speak) and issues #1-2 have been lettered. We’ve got the main covers for the first three issues, and are working on alternate covers. None of this is going to be even scheduled until the whole thing is done so we can release on a good schedule without delays. We have another book we want to write at some point, once we’ve got Animal done and Pigman sold.

Pseudonymous novel. I got about 25,000 words into this spec novel, but had to put it aside, as I was working on it thinking that Wrenn would be working enough to cover us while I wrote a novel on spec. But her contract work turned out to be less than expected, and I’ve had to go back to work that pays the bills. I’m hoping to spend time working on this at some point this year and getting it out to my agent to shop around.

Sherlock Holmes/Shirley Holmes. I’ve been talking with Christopher D. Abbott about doing more Holmes work with him, including a solo novel and also a “flip-book�� style novel with half the story by me and half by Christopher. We’ll see how that goes. In addition, I’ll be doing another Shirley-and-Jack story for a second Eliminate the Impossible volume.

Here There Be Dragons. I tried writing this, I really did, but I simply could not get into a groove with it. Disappointing, but this is on the back burner for the time being, and will likely stay there for some time��

Tie-in novel. I have a proposal in for a tie-in novel in a franchise I have worked in before. Further, I can’t say, but it’s a proposal the editor likes, it’s just a question of whether or not there will be a place for it in the schedule. We shall see.

Short fiction. I’ve got two short stories due at the end of the month. One is for PRISM, which is a shared-world spy-thriller anthology edited by Hildy Silverman for Crazy 8 Press. (There’s , if you want to support it.) The other is for an anthology of stories inspired by hit singles of the 1980s �� I’ll be doing “Road to Nowhere�� by Talking Heads. I have been invited to contribute to the next Defending the Future anthology, which will be a tribute to the late great David Sherman, with whom I worked closely on the 18th Race trilogy. I’ll be contributing to next year’s “Forgotten Lore�� anthology, which will be a turn-of-the-20th-century steampunk story featuring a new character named Emanuela Acquistapace. And finally, my vampire story “Order Up�� will be in the next issue of Weird Tales.

Nonfiction. The Babylon 5 Rewatch continues apace every Monday on Reactor, and I’ll also be reviewing each episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds when it debuts this summer. I won’t be reviving ��4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch�� until the end of the year. In addition, I’ve got an essay looking at Jack Kirby’s run as writer/artist/editor of Captain America in 1976, which will appear in a Becky Books collection of essays about “King�� Kirby. I also am horribly behind on TV and movie reviews for my Patreon, and I hope to finally start addressing that in May once Dragon Precinct: Origins and the two short stories due at the end of April are done.