Thank you, Robin!

Every day that I can buy a book for the library by one of my friends is a good day. Today, it is @christopherrowe.bsky.social

The Day-Blind Stars - Reactor An Earth explorer in search of something new and strange in the up and out ends up traveling through space with a small god over millennia.

An Earth explorer in search of something new and strange in the up and out ends up traveling through space with a small god over millennia...

"The Day-Blind Stars" by @christopherrowe.bsky.social is out to read at Reactor now!

Art by Hwarim Lee
Edited by @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social

This took longer than it should have but I’m out of practice.

I have finalized my roster and chosen my paint scheme. Pondering a name for this 32nd century mercenary giant robot force. Don’t tell me I don’t know how to spend a Saturday night.

A topographical map of Kentucky, with its many counties outlined, has three labels. Label #1: High Points of Kentucky’s
120 Counties Label #2: https://kgs.uky.edu/kyhighpts/ Label #3: From the Kentucky Geological Survey website: Kentucky writer and cyclist Christopher Rowe was using the 1978 KGS report “Topography of Kentucky” to find high points in each county with the idea of bicycling to as many as possible. When we learned about his efforts, we immediately realized we could use the statewide LiDAR DEM to determine each county’s highest point far more accurately than could be done with old topographic maps. So, we did that, calculated the distance from each high point the nearest road, and are sharing the results via this interactive map. 

That time I unknowingly inspired one of the finest uses of government resources with which I am familiar.

My story, “The Day-Blind Stars,” will appear at Tor’s REACTOR site in April. It was edited by Jonathan Strahan & illustrated by Hwarim Lee. The tag line reads: An Earth explorer in search of something new and strange in the up and out, ends up traveling through space with a small god over millennia.

I can name movies I’ve ONLY seen on VHS.

I really, really like the HBO show Rooster. I have watched the two episodes released so far twice and am mad they didn’t do that thing they do sometimes where they release all the episodes at once. I’m now thinking maybe they don’t do that anymore, but I wish they did. I would watch them all today.

Things this woman has said to me today include “You should buy chickpeas every time you go to the grocery” and “Do you like Chet Baker?”

Text reads: Homemakers homemade homemade yeah yeah I signed up on Tuesday for the pay plan and what both days OK I’ll signed up for the pen on Tuesday and the flag of the flower on Wednesday. Well, we put it on there to see which one we got if we get one or the other one might not get either one OK what else did you do for this one? Are we gonna do the supporting the breast-feeding? Well, you know it’s like that. Oh that’s great. That’s great color of the mountains. That’s dies natural dies I did sign up for that and it did say pay for your first choice. If there’s a fee well that one has a fee and then the block party it’s it is recording what I’m saying look at that.

Yesterday, my mother sent me the greatest text message I’ve ever received.

A Reading from the Commonplace Book The way I figure it, every man’s entitled to a door he can close against the world. —Ed McBain —Lady, Lady, I Did It!

AI generated response to the query: “What snack food is Kentucky known for?”

“Kentuckians love their cheese dust. This is the top favorite snack around the state.”

A list of texts in the format of an MLA works cited page reads: Chabon, Michael. “Chapter 4: The Cloud Factory.” The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, William Morrow & Co, New York, 1988, pp. 37–45. Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Interpreter of Maladies.” Interpreter of Maladies: Stories, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, pp. 35–51. Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” I Would Prefer Not To: Essential Stories, Pushkin Press, London, 2021, pp. 6–51. Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM.” The New Voices of Science Fiction, Tachyon, San Francisco, 2019, pp. 239–259. Robinson, Kim Stanley. “Part 3: The Crucible.” Red Mars, Bantam Spectra, New York, 1992, pp. 134–161. Slezak, Ellen. “If You Treat Things Right.” Last Year’s Jesus, Hyperion, New York, 2002, pp. 167–183.

I think many of you will be able to ascertain the theme for next week's setting class from the reading list.

2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race Preview and Start List Preview The 34 th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 1...

domesticdomestique.blogspot.com/2026/02/2026...

A screenshot of a blog post titled "2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race Preview and Start List." A colorful logo features a stylized cyclist in silhouette against sun-drenched mountains and a banner reading "Valley of the Sun Sun Stage Race - John Earley Memorial." The first pagragraph of the preview is also visible, and reads: "The 34th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 13th February through Sunday, 15th February, with riders taking on the traditional time trial, road race, and criterium as stages raced for cumulative time. This year’s pro fields are significantly smaller than last year’s, with just 48 women and 77 men registered to start Friday’s time trial, down from 66 and 115 last year."

My preview of the first big domestic bike race of the year is available at my Domestic Domestique blog.

A reading from the Commonplace Book …wordmills had just come in, they were all the rage, people were sick of writers, they loved the wordmill product, there was no time for a publisher to think of anything else and no point in him doing so. —Fritz Leiber —“The Silver Eggheads” 1959

This is a repost, prompted by an NYT article going around about a writer who "produces" 200 books per year.

Making a couple of notes for this week’s cycling podcast recording, I had cause to find out how fast donkeys can run. This came up in Google. That maximum given in the graphic isn’t even close to correct, but I was more struck by the questions people “also asked.”

I am likewise impressed!

The entire anti wokeness nonsense of the past decade was about making this kind of gutter racism broadly acceptable again bsky.app/profile/adam...

Kaleidotrope is the Amazing Fandangle's plucky sidekick.

The Weekly Run Up Episode 1 YouTube video by Christopher Rowe

The best cycling podcast ever made by Adair Countians! We need better equipment. I need to not get excited and interrupt Tom. It's hopefully fun for anybody, but we're still figuring our angle. This was 1 take, no script. I got a bit out of hand. Comments solicited!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u1A...

I don't feel as confident as I did when I was a kid that Canada geese know what the hell they're doing.

For what it’s worth, I meet four of five of these but considering me in the to 1% of writerly anythings is a biiiig stretch.

I don’t know. Stripped of context it’s not objectively stupid. But context exists.

To what international winter sport am I referring, and to what athlete in particular, in this only slightly exaggerated fictional commentary?

“And the world champion picks up another few seconds by once again choosing to ride through the crocodile pit where others are skirting it.”

www.instagram.com/reel/DT5cYF7...

I should add that I was impressed with their performance of those duties in those contexts by all of them, except for the elder Mrs. Bush, who somehow managed to simultaneously convey the impressions that she was bored and that she was dangerous.

I did not meet Secretary Clinton until years after she had left that role. All the others were in the context of their duties.