Back in the mid-90s Matt Costello and I were freelancing at Disney Interactive, scripting "MathQuest with Aladdin." The hope, of course, was that Robin Willliams would do the Genie's voice and he eventually agreed. We were back East when he came into the studio to do his lines, so we missed the recording session, but we were each sent a copy of the raw tape.

What a revelation. We'd assumed that the animators would choose the Genie's look in a particular scene and Williams would adopt the appropriate accent for the dialogue. Wrong! Williams did every single line in a different accent -- at least four per line -- and rarely the same mix of accents. At times he would stop and say he didn't like the way one came out and would repeat it until he got it the way he wanted. (I should mention that he was sick and running a fever during the session but this was the only window he had to be in the studio, so he hung in there like the proverbial trouper.)

The animators took the tape and chose the accent(s) they thought worked for a particular scene, and illustrated Genie accordingly. (Jonathan Winters also performed on "MathQuest.")

So there's my Robin Williams story: He performed dialogue I co-wrote. (How many degrees of separation is that?)

7/1 - Watch this Thai guy pour tea. Looks impossible, looks CGI but... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkm8wMRgtx8

7/3 - How often does a grocery store commercial get you all verklempt? http://fb.me/33UDM46zz

7/4 - Happy Birthday, USA

7/6 - Aspire to inspire before you expire.

7/7 - sorry to subject you to my continuing love affair with bad puns... http://tinyurl.com/m6jujwa

7/9 - Heather Graham and I held a 2-hour workshop at the Craftfest part of Thrillerfest.

7/10 - met with the Apple/iBooks folks to discuss doing some business. The iBooks app will be integrated into iOS 8 and all Apple products sold from this fall onward.

7/10 - evening at Thrillerfest. Drinks with friends old and new at the exquisite Campbell Apartment hidden away in Grand Central Station http://tinyurl.com/qbrsp9c

7/11 - moderated an 8am Thrillerfest panel this morning and people showed up!

7/11 - met with a Wattpad rep. They have 30 million registered readers - skewed toward millennials and younger, down to tweens - and we discussed ways to reach out to them.

7/12 - video interview for "Books du Jour" - I'm sure I'll show up eventually. http://bookcasetv.com/tv-programs/books-du-jour/

7/14 - Don't forget: The Bible, the Quran, the Talmud, the Book of Bokonon, and the Necronomicon all list pineapple pizza under "Abominations"

7/15 - where can I buy these? http://tinyurl.com/p53khme

7/16 - saw "The Strain" pilot and what I felt most was not fear but deja-vu - from the Van Helsing stand-in (also named Abraham) to the coffin arriving on a death ship. The worms are the only non-derivative aspect so far.

7/17-20 - another NECon, another sleepless weekend

7/21 - I came across an intriguing phrase: defying anti-gravity

7/22 - from an Assyrian Tablet, c. 2800 BCE: "The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching."

7/22 - signed a boxful of FEAR CITY advance copies for the Gauntlet edition and sent them back.

7/23 - I keep getting these "GoFundMe" emails... and I keep misreading them at first glance.

7/23 - after a decades-long search, I finally found (or rather, it found me) the John Schoenherr "Wheels Within Wheels" cover painting for Analog. Here's what it looked like on the magazine: http://tinyurl.com/nwk54tp

7/24 - "It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." -- G K Chesterton

7/25 - In honor of SDCC, my Joker story, "Definitive Therapy," is featured and FREE on Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/56881557-definitive-therapy

7/27 - $50k+ for potato salad??? Where’s the recession??? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/324...tato-salad

7/29 - off to Nantucket for a couple of weeks of reading and relaxing.

I figure you'll have seen it but...

http://www.clickhole.com/article/saturda...e=facebook

This hole in Siberia is eerily familiar: http://www.azcentral.com/media/cinematic.../12738561/

This starts up again tonight on FX. Last season imported the storyline from the original Danish/Swedish version of the same show. It was decent, but I'm really looking forward to something that more fully exploits the El Paso/Juarez location. I'm sure Denmark and Sweden have their differences in culture and such, but there's got to be a whole lot more story to be mined from El Paso/Juarez.

Anybody else reading this? On p91- haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm still reading it. Definitely feels different.

6/1 - A new interview - in Hebrew - http://www.sf-f.org.il/story_1571 and English - http://fb.me/6PmD2AUYB

6/3 - A NECESSARY END by Sarah Pinborough and me in audio!!!! http://tinyurl.com/lx26687

6/6 - CULTURAL IQ DEPT.: A friend was closing a real estate deal today. She told the young couple, "It'll be easy to remember the day you bought your first house." A blank look. She said, "D-Day." Another blank look. Need I go on?

6/9 - "An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods." -- Ambrose Bierce

6/12 - Sarah and I just sold German rights to A NECESSARY END in a lightning deal - less than a week from query to payment.

6/12 - Okay. 1st draft of new book off to agent. It's 115k and could have been longer. I =like= these people.

6/13 - Magnificent - pic.twitter.com/6YB5OvJuyC

6/15 - Fine with me. I always tip 20% - more on a small bill. http://tinyurl.com/kxrbcue

6/17 - finished THE NIRVANA PLAGUE by Gary Glass last night. A compelling plot, characters I enjoyed being with -- loved the snarky Karen. It gets scientificky in some spots which might not work for all readers but worked for me. I don't know if the author tried for a Big 5 contract or simply decided to go indy. Either way, bravo for indy publishing because otherwise I never would have seen this excellent novel. http://tinyurl.com/nda2tne

6/20 - Could be the BEST. VINE. EVAH! https://vine.co/v/MIjTE3ZDxa3

6/22 - Obliquity at work. My iPod is running through the "O" songs and "Ode to Billie Joe" just played. Haven't heard it in a long time and was struck by the storytelling technique. Most of the information is offered through dialogue around a kitchen table. We never learn why Billie Joe jumped off that bridge. The narrator had something to do with it, but she's not telling. So we're left guessing... or maybe going back for another listen.

6/23 - I just proofed my old story "Cuts," to be reprinted in Ellen Datlow's THE CUTTING ROOM anthology. I guess I've mellowed over the years because now that story strikes me as waaaay over the top.

6/25 - Ebooks Are Forever just sold a bunch of my titles to a California library system.

6/26 - While looking for something else, I came across this in my photo folder. It's called "Drought" and I painted in when I was 14 or so: http://tinyurl.com/nmv7zsh

6/27 - why I love the Jersey Shore (Venus and the moon off Belmar) http://tinyurl.com/oroccmp

6/30 - Anybody have plans to stare at their phone someplace exciting July 4 weekend?

Anyone hanging in there and following the show to the bitter end? LOL.

It's free and available now: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/449725

Radio podcast in an... interesting desert town.

http://podbay.fm/show/536258179/e/133976...utostart=1