Writers & books in the Digital Age

On the road to Nirvana: Speed bumps

by

A world-historical sleep, maybe eight hours, but, more importantly, a deep sleep fraught with deep dreams. Up at 7 am and feeling pretty good. No time for exercise; Sara’s going to give me a ride to the Skytrain station.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is strbks-window.jpg
https://www.wongnai.com/restaurants/177627KJ-starbucks-emporium-tower

But things start to go wrong. What the hell is this? Can a good sleep cast as dark a pall over proceedings as my usual insomnia? My laptop refuses to connect to our router, so I can’t back it up … Read more

Impressive erections

by

This week Jack tells Tommy and Willie what he learned so far about security arrangements at Luckyland.


Current edition. Cover by Colin Cotterill

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • EAT YOUR HEART OUT, SINGAPORE. Various interests have announced plans to build what will be four of the world’s ten tallest buildings right here in Bangkok, all of them scheduled to go up in the coming year. 
  • DESIGNS ON NIC-HOOD. Bangkok is at once sprawling ever wider and
… Read more

Gooney birds, God and godawful long nights

by

The noted etymologist J.B.S. Haldane, perhaps more of a wag than most of his ilk, famously suggested that “The Creator, if He exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” So I noted in an earlier post (Japanieces, tilefish and things ).

Now we can add the following to our list of God’s attributes. We also have good reason to believe He laughs at gooney birds. Some commentators prefer to suggest He laughs with them, seeing as how He … Read more

A dinner invitation

by

This week Fat-Fat invites Jack to a nice dinner.

bookSiam edition (out of print)
Amazon edition here

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • GLUTTONY. Everybody’s talking about runaway corruption, but exactly what is this thing? The Thais call being ‘on the take’ kin, which is the same as ‘eat.’ Now, it might be a mistake to confuse real corruption with kin tham nam, which is only the traditional ‘eating,’ where you offer public officials a kind
… Read more

HIPPOLYTE

by

Last week Jack got some much-needed exercise while negotiating Bangkok traffic en route to a rendezvous with Hippolyte Lafleur, a.k.a. Izzy Scoop.

Some previous editions

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • FORGE ON. Could it be that the girls at Lots O’ Hots are buying their VD certificates from the same place Big Sammy Soo was getting his money printed? That would be nothing but a vicious rumor, were it not for the epidemic proportion of the complaints
… Read more

HOME SWEET HOME

by

Last week we met Mu and learned the key to her libido. This week we meet all of her household, including a distinctive rhythm section and Mu’s sister, Bia.

Current edition

Selections from Arno Petty’s Intelligencer and Weekly Gleaner

  • ALL FOR ONE, AND ONE FOR ALL. Western men have been known to misconstrue what is happening when they marry a Thai lady. Suddenly, as often as not, they discover that there are two cousins from upcountry who need a place
… Read more

THE TRAFFIC IS JUST MURDEROUS THESE DAYS

by

 This week we join Jack Shackaway on an interesting trip through Bangkok traffic. His trusty old typewriter, which he’s meant to get rid of for years, proves useful.

dreamstime

  • HAPPY DAYS. Soon everybody in the country will have a couple of Benzes, not to mention pots full of chickens. Dearie me, yes; the race to NIC-hood (Newly Industrialized Country status, for those of you from outer space) is bringing on a New Day for us all. Now if only
… Read more

Dopamine addiction: The haikus

by

Enough with the novels, already. Time to spin some haikus, eh?

I admit it: the internet is eating my mind. And here are some related haikus, straight from the poet, by God.

Self-portrait: Tenuously me

Spring day darkening:

the locust digital swarm

eats my absent mind.

Read on for the essential lowdown on dopamine addiction.

Dipping for Dopamine

Delivery vehicles,

Every damn Like

A dopamine fix. 

Proto-cyborg Lament

The battery defunct,

My 5G iPhone is dead.

I am diminished. 

Oxymoron… Read more

101 ways social isolation is good for you

by

#1 Recover the pleasure of sinking into a long novel.  

I’ve started serializing Kicking Dogs on this site (the next chapter appears next Tuesday). This novel is just 242 pages long. Hardly more than a brochure and, ideally, it’ll leave you wishing there was more of it. 

Current edition

MOM and Genesis 2.0 are longer. Much longer. But ideally, again, they’ll leave you wishing there was more. (In fact more of the Magic Circles series of novels is on … Read more

Pandemic books, pandemic reviews

by
Barbara Smaller, https://lithub.com/six-cartoonists-on-critical-failure-one-panel-at-a-time/

I’m posting a new Kicking Dogs chapter every Tuesday, and an independent item every Thursday.

Let’s kick off this week’s SIDECAR post with a seven-year-old item from Jack Shackaway, my collaborator and, incidentally, the hero of my novel Kicking Dogs.

Selling novels: What it takes
I’m probably over-reacting, but it’s already getting harder these days to take pride in thinking of yourself as a writer, since so can anybody with the price of a computer and

… Read more