For 30 years, Christopher Tolkien has been editing The Children of Hurin, a story his father J.R.R. Tolkien began in 1918 but later abandoned. The Children of Hurin will finally be released as a new, stand-alone work next spring.

More photos here.

California winemakers are probably more amenable than most of the world’s vintners to using the latest technological advances, as we discovered at the International Wine and Food Festival in Banff last fall listening to a presentation from Cakebread Cellars outlining their use of remote sensing and other technology. Here’s another example (the “Modesto winemaker” in …

Continue reading

After which, of course, there was only one more thing to say: “Take me to your leader,” Chris commanded. Current word count: 23,212New words this session: 1,492Percentage of novel completed: 23.2

…from CKOM News Talk 650 Radio in Saskatoon. Two days ago a producer there called to ask me to do a short telephone interview Thursday morning at 6:10 a.m. (!) about wine drinking in Saskatchewan. I agreed. The producer did mention there was a possibility that the segment would be bumped because of the then-breaking …

Continue reading

I’ve seen the first copies of A Safe and Prosperous Future: 100 Years of Engineering and Geoscience Achievements in Saskatchewan; I took copies yesterday to the Saskatchewan Book Awards office to meet the September 15 deadline for entering books in this year’s competition. A Safe and Prosperous Future is published by the Association of Professional …

Continue reading

Um, excuse me, did he just say “Saskatoon”? Yes, that’s right. Divers in Saskatoon believe they may have found the anchor from the City of Medicine Hat, which crashed into the then brand-new Victoria Street Bridge (also known as Traffic Bridge) in the spring of 1908. It was land-locked Saskatoon’s only maritime accident. Go figure.

…as the top search term bringing people to edwardwillett.com. (I’ve included the top 15 instead of just the top 10 search terms this time because “spider goats” appears out of the top 10 but combines with “spider goat” at number one to give the edge to this genetically engineered marvel): 28 spider goat 0.7% 28 …

Continue reading

The landing craft banked, turned, and came back for a second pass. Current word count: 21,720New words this session: 983Percentage of novel completed: 21.7

But the fear came back when another explosion shook his apartment so violently a large chunk of the ceiling dropped onto his just-vacated bed. Word count as of Wednesday: 20,737New words that session: 523Percentage of novel completed: 20.7

The secret to why high-protein diets work may have been found–and may lead to products that achieve the same result without forcing people to give up bread. Mmmmm…bread…

…what should you be called? Here’s a contest at Pajamas Media to come up with a name. Enter to win (what else) a pair of pajamas! I’ve always hated political pigeon-holing and the assumption that because you hold position A about one topic (say, the invasion of Iraq) you must therefore hold position B about …

Continue reading