This is the maiden post of my new Web log. I contribute to another 'blog, the mighty Science Made Cool, but I wanted a place to write about books and writing, promote my own work, release old stuff which will never get reprinted, and generally gas about whatever I feel like.

In particular, I plan to use this 'blog for three main topics. First, I want to give "behind the scenes" tours of my own stories — how they came to be written, why I made certain choices, and so on.

Second, I want to do "liveblogging" of classic books — currently I'm working through the Oz books with my son and have prepared some long posts about them. If those are well-received, I may do the Narnia series.

And third, I want to reprint some of my old game writing, stuff that never got published or which appeared in magazines long defunct.

Some ground rules:  I will TRY to keep the site non-political. Mostly. I know perfectly well nobody's core beliefs have ever been transformed by something they read on a 'blog. Nor will my political opinions shift because of something you write in the comments. My opinion of you, however, can change quite dramatically. And by "you" I naturally mean some disagreeable stranger and not the witty and intelligent person reading this.

My kids read this. I won't shy away from adult topics, but let's try to keep the language at a PG level, okay? I won't delete the occasional "precision strike" but I do object to obscenity for its own sake.

Let's get started.