Dearly Beloved You Guys:

So, I’m nearly halfway through my pediatrics rotation and loving it. The kids are, as to be expected, unbelievably cute. More on that later. Possibly much later. Now I’ve very excited to announce Spellbound’s book tour. This year it’s looking like I’ll be running up and down the left side of the country; however, Stanford ( Read more... )

Dearly Beloved You Guys:

By the time you read this, my week on the well-baby nursery will be afoot. Let’s hold the phone for a moment to think about well-babies. They’re cute. They pee and poop with abandon, and their physical findings are strange. Consider heart sounds. In the adult, the healthy human heart produces a lub’dub… lub’dub… lub’dub ( Read more... )

As with all other posts about medicine, the following has been altered to remove any identifying information.

**RING RING**

Blake: Hello.

Unnamed and Really Very Nice Hospital Administrator: Hello, is this Medical Student Blake Charlton?

Blake: Yes.

Admin: This is the hospital security department. We can’t process your photo ID request because ( Read more... )

Gentle (or Otherwise) Readers,

This week I was very proud to see the cover for the UK edition of Spellbound debut over at The Speculative Scotsman. It’s a wonderful blog for SFF reviews and witty commentary on matters literary and cultural. In fact, given that I’m still working away in the hospital this month, why don’t we list TSS as the diversion ( Read more... )

Dearly Beloved You Guys:

Today starts my rotation in psychiatry. As the son of two shrinks, this day has long been anticipated by clan Charlton. A strong desire to uphold the family honor and to “not suck” (that’s a biomedical technical term) will likely keep me from much internet activity until April when I’m back to research and writing.

News ( Read more... )

The following is a crosspost of my contribution to  Mary Victoria’s  “Writing Strong Women” series.

Let me tell you the stories of three women.

Or, to be more precise, the stories of a dead woman, a living girl, an imaginary girl.

The dead woman’s story-as I witnessed it-starts when she was alive.

It’s my first year of medical school, and we’re ( Read more... )

The Writers on the Verge series interviews the new faces in the fields of SFF. This one is a crosspost at Tor.com; click through to join the discussion there. Also check out past WotV interviews of Peter Orullian, Sam Sykes, Mary Victoria, and Saladin Ahmed.

* * *

As I’ve noted in past interviews, 2011 is looking like a boom year for fantasy-and ( Read more... )

Dearly Beloved You All:

As you might recall from this post, I’m very passionate about read-aloud fiction. For that reason, I’m especially proud to announce that the distinguished Escape Pod podcast has produced a performance of my novella, Endosymbiont. (If you’re a reader more than a listener you can read an online copy of the story here or pick ( Read more... )

Dearly Beloved You Guys:

My high school football coach was fond of the zen phrase “There are no excuses; only reasons.” Problem was, he belted out said gem of tranquility while exhorting me and other semi-armored pubescents to compromise each others’ skeletal systems. Not. So. Zen. Like.

But these days, I’ve found that phrase bouncing around in my ( Read more... )

Dearly Beloved Peoples,

Should you be in the Bay Area this weekend, come out to the hippest literary event in the city, Writers with Drinks, featuring famous people and (somehow) me.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

At The Make-Out Room

3225 22nd. St., San Francisco CA,

From 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM.

Here’s the 411 about the other ( Read more... )