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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 11h

Unidentified water fowl taking in the breeze at Plum Point, Adair County, Kentucky, 9th October 2026.

Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Thomsen's comment was quoted in a letter to William Donovan written by Malcolm R. Lovell. Lovell was attempting to secure the cooperation of Thomsen, who was then serving as Germany's ambassador to the USA. I found this in Anthony Cave Brown's 1982 biography of Donovan, _The Last Hero_.

A Reading from
the Commonplace Book

With the invention of the typewriter all secrets became public.

—Dr. Hans Thomsen
—11 September 1941

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

There’s a website maintained by Roll Call you can find by looking up the president’s name and adding the term “social media posts.” These are posts the president made this afternoon.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This is from Christianity Today's Facebook feed. I read it as saying that the game's theological dimensions can be spiritually "formulaic" and thought, yeah, that's for damned sure.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

That’s me in green texting with my friend Tom the night before La Vuelta Ciclista a España started. As Tom said, “I hope we didn’t jinx anybody.” (For those who don’t follow cycling, Tadej Pogacar crashed out of the race yesterday and Enric Mas won today’s stage and is in the leader’s jersey.)

A text exchange between Tom and Christopher (me):

Tom: And more important news. Who's your pick for the vuelta?

Christopher: Man, I haven’t even looked. The Tour just bored me and then the stuff with the women’s coverage. I haven’t even renewed my Peacock subscription yet, when does it start?

Christopher: I did see Julian retired.

Christopher: Wait, Tadej is riding?

Christopher: Blah.

Christopher: Fuck it. Enric Mas for three stages and the overall.

Tom: Blah indeed. But hopefully there will be some excitement out of wow and Cara Paz. I would personally love to see primos pull a surprise upset and get his Bull Durham record and then retire this year.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Taters inspecting my twenty-dollar farmer’s market haul.

A gray cat sniffs an array of peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers spread atop a table with a melon, a loaf of bread, and a glass of lemonade.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Just picked ‘em up and they are game changers!

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Last night at the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, Kentucky. Everybody appears to have had a big old time.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Tomorrow, I go teach at the annual Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School on Troublesome Creek. I’ve been there once, 40 years ago, for James Still’s 80th birthday party (I was 16). I took a line from his great poem, “Heritage,” as the title for one of my books. Here it is.

A broadside reads:

HERITAGE

I shall not leave these prisoning hills
Though they topple their barren heads to level earth
And the forests slide uprooted out of the sky.
Though the waters of Troublesome, of Trace Fork,
Of Sand Lick rise in a single body to glean the valleys,
To drown lush pennyroyal, to unravel rail fences;
Though the sun-ball breaks the ridges into dust
And burns its strength into the blistered rock
I cannot leave. I cannot go away.
Being of these hills, being one with the fox
Stealing into the shadows, one with the new-born foal,
The lumbering ox drawing green beech logs to mill,
One with the destined feet of man climbing and descending,
And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go.
Being of these hills I cannot pass beyond.

James Still
1968

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

This is a passage from a story in the latest issue of Asimov's. The story is set in 212 AD, the setting is the Italian peninsula, and the characters are specifically said to be speaking Greek. Is there anything about it that throws you out? I was, but suspect I might just be being precious.

Text reading:

“You’re lucky to be here, then,” I said. It had been an inauspicious start to
Hannibal’s campaign, but I couldn’t say that to his face. He’d kept both legs, and I wasn’t about to ask where he lost the eye.

He fixed me with the one that remained. “My point: sieges are costly.
And boring.”

A joke came to mind about sapping, undermining. In the sense of boring . . . under a wall. [ellipsis in original] However, since I had already established that Hannibal had no sense of humor, I kept it to myself.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Posited. If you are a science fiction writer of any description, these, the first two pages of Edmond Hamilton's novelette, "The Star-Stealers," as they appeared on first publication in the February 1929 issue of Weird Tales, have had a profound influence on your creative life. (Art by Hugh Rankin.)

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

I fancy myself a fairly skilled writer but it is beyond my abilities to adequately describe the expression on my brother’s face when I told him I couldn’t take a gardening suggestion of his because doing so would subvert my color story.

A man in farming clothes (me) stands in an early spring garden holding an open notebook in one hand and gesturing with the other.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

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

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

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.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

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

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.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

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?”

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

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

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

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

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.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

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

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

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

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

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

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.”

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Here we go. The key moment in what brokers call "TACO trading." TACO stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out." TACO trading is the purchasing of stocks deflated by Presidential threats, then selling them at profit as they rebound following the President's reneging. Who profits? Who do you think?

A screen cap shows US President Donald J. Trump addressing a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2026. An accompanying CNN headline reads: "Trump renews demand for Greenland in Davos speech, but says he 'won't use force'

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

This is from duckduckgo. I also tried kagi, then yahoo, bing, and aol (all of which still exist). Google generated no AI overview. Across all 6, I found 1 item from the Hill (and some reposts of it), reporting that a retiring Nebraska rep tweeted: "Very embarrassing situation." And that is all.

Screen shot of a "Search Assist" result at duckduckgo, generated in response to the search string: republican response to trump message to norwegian prime minister

The given response is: "Sorry, no relevant information was found in our search."

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Black poet Dudley Randall (1914–2000) founded Broadside Press at Detroit in 1965. It quickly became one of the leading publishers in the Black Arts Movement. As is suggested by its name, the publisher produced a series of broadsides, the first of which, featuring Randall’s own work, is shown here.

A yellow broadside shows the following text in umber ink:

Ballad of Birmingham
BY Dudley Randall

(On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)

“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”

© Copyright 1963 and 1965 Melody Trails, Inc., New York, N.Y.

Also available in the song,
BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM,
Words by Dudley Randall; Music by Jerry Moore.
This is the definitive version of the poem,
extensively revised by the author.

BROADSIDE No. 1, September, 1965
Broadside Press
12651 Old Mill Place
Detroit, Michigan 48238
35 Cents

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

This is the running list to texts I've assigned thus far in my Writing 520 class, "Place as Idea and Identity." (And one of my students already got ahead of any of you other smarty-pants types; New York Magazine is not italicized because it's here listed as a publisher, not a publication.)

A lists of texts, formatted as an MLA styled Works Cited page, reads:

Bailey, Dale and Christopher Rowe. Text correspondence. 7 Jan. 2026.
Bisson, Terry. “Bears Discover Fire.” Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, Orb, New York, 1994, pp. 4–17.
---. “The Two Janets.” Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, Orb, New York, 1994, pp. 18–27.
Delany, Samuel R. “Some Notes for the Intermediate and Advanced Creative Writing Student.” About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews, Wesleyan UP, Middletown, CT, 2005, pp. 117–148.
Gibson, William. “Chapter One.” Neuromancer, Ace, New York, 1984, pp. 3–25.
Le Guin, Ursula K. “Unquestioned Assumptions.” The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination, Shambhala, Boston, 2004, pp. 240–249.
Lorenzo, Angelo. “Noise Is Life.” Stories on the Move: Voices of the Unhoused, special issue of International Human Rights Art Movement Literary Magazine, Fall 2025, pp. 19–22.
Miler, Mary. “Soldiers.” Oxford American, no. 130, Fall 2025, pp. 79–84.
Miller, Denise. “The Work of Hands.” Callaloo, vol. 43, no. 2, Spring 2025, pp. 105–109.
Roy, Arundhati. “Chapter 1: Paradise Pickles & Preserves.” The God of Small Things, Random House, New York, 1997, pp. 3–33.
Shapiro, Lila. “Gluttons for Punishment.” Vulture, New York Magazine, 7 Jan. 2026, www.vulture.com/article/justin-mcdaniel-existential-despair-course.html.
Winick, Judd, and Joshua Middleton. Superman/Shazam! First Thunder, DC Comics, Burbank, CA, 2018, pp. 122–125.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Next week's reading list for my Writing 520 students. "Texts" are, as I put it "required to be read and expected to be reread" and there are questions and discussions associated with each. "Ephemera" are optional readings.

Texts
“Paradise Pickles and Preserves,” chapter one of the novel God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1997
“Bears Discover Fire,” short story by Terry Bisson from the collection Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, 1994
“Soldiers,” short story by Mary Miller from The Oxford American, Fall 2025
“Noise is Life,” short story by Angelo Lorenzon from Ihram Press Literary Magazine, Quarter 4, 2025
“The Work of Hands,” short story by Denise Miller from Callaloo, vol 43, no 2, Spring 2025
Neuromancer (chapter one), novel by William Gibson, 1984

Ephemera
“The Two Janets,” short story by Terry Bisson from the collection Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, 1994
“Who did this to you?” four-page extract from Superman/Shazam! First Thunder, graphic novel script by Judd Winick, art by Joshual Middleton, 2018

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Having a hot old time this Friday night!

An enormous antique oak desk is burdened by a three-screens sophisticated-for-an-English-major tech set up, two open notebooks, and three or four teetering stacks of books, the titles of most of which are illegible.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Yesterday afternoon came the news that the first new and complete thing I’ve written in 2026, a short story titled “The Means,” will be in a forthcoming issue of Lightspeed Magazine. (3/4)

An envelope with a German postmark, addressed to Christopher Rowe in Columbia, Kentucky, USA, is covered with illegible scrawling.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Here is the dress code from my syllabus for Writing 520: Place as Idea and Identity. (there is no such dress code, y’all settle down)

A green box with text reading:

Dress Code

Any student wearing a t-shirt featuring imagery from or inspired by the covers of Sticky Fingers or The Dark Side of the Moon will be required to recite the lyrics of one track, chosen by me, from the given album. I will not be choosing “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” “Time,” or “Money.”

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Life as I am living it in one afternoon's to do list.

A list, headed "afternoon," written in cursive in blue ink on line notebook paper. The four items listed read: post syllabus, sack up feed left in bins 1 and 3, work a little on book, and kitty litter.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

A Doonesbury comic strip written and drawn by Gary Trudeau, published in 1980.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Holding Chi’s hair out of the wind while she practices her Demerara rum spokesmodel skills.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Me and Guyana’s two greatest exports. Chi gives me a bottle of El Dorado rum for my birthday.

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

As of yesterday, I am 56 Earth years old. As a science fiction writer of some regard, if little fame, I am obliged to add that also as of yesterday, I am 29.78 Mars years old.

Middle aged white guy with a closely trimmed white beard wearing glasses and a red shirt. He has forgotten to take out his earbuds. One of the books in the crowded shelves behind him is Being Gardner Dozois, by Michael Swanwick. He’s not a bad looking guy!

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Christopher Rowe @christopherrowe.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I'm trying to get up a gaming group here in Adair County and failing to enlist the aid of my nephew, William. I made up this poster for him to hang around the campus of the local college, which he attends. He is a sports nut and the opposite of a nerd. He does not seem amenable to this idea.

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