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VarleyLog

We Bought a Tesla!

Here’s what happened. Lee came across what looked like a tiny, yellowing IOU at the bottom of some ancient records. It was from the Tooth Fairy, and she said she was a little short of cash and would pay me a dime the next night. It was dated May 8, 1954. I was seven! She’s still in business, you know, the Tooth Fairy, so Lee tracked her down and demanded payment. The old biddy was not ...

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Looking Back

The Miracles Get a STAR

When: Friday, March 20, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.

Location: Corner of Hollywood Boulevard and El Cerrito Place

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That’s not a myth. ~Smokey Robinson

It was the 50th anniversary of Motown (actually it was founded on January 12, 1959, but let’s not nitpick) and The ...

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Novels

Millennium

In the skies over Oakland, California, a DC-10 and a 747 are about to collide. And in the far distant future, a time-travel team is preparing to snatch the passengers, leaving prefabricated smoking bodies behind for the rescue teams to find. And an air disaster investigator gets a phone call that changes his life … and the world as we know it.

This novel was based on John’s ...

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Movie Reviews

Chicken Every Sunday

Dan Dailey and Celeste Holm are a couple in Tucson, slightly before and after 1900. He has a pattern, which is to start a business and then, just as it is about to make a nice profit, he gets tired of it and embarks on another business. His long-suffering wife has to take in boarders to make ends meet, and they are forever adding to the house to make a room for one more. When his ...

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Collections

Superheroes

Superheroes is an anthology edited by John Varley and Ricia Mainhardt of superhero stories written by some of today’s top fantasy and science fiction writers, with an introduction by Varley. These modern-day heroes champion justice in an age where good and bad aren’t always black and white. Varley’s story: “Truth, Justice and the ...

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Short Fiction

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

There are many lessons to learn, and many ways to learn them.

PBS turned “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” into a 3-(out of 10)-Star, made-for-TV movie starring Raul Julia.

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Titan: An Overview

A Short Overview of Titan

Here's a very short but quite impressive video made by Jean-Paul Verne, a fly-through of Gaea from my trilogy. M. Verne wants to be involved if a movie ever gets made. Over the years many, many people have written to me wishing these books would be made into a movie. Naturally, I'd like that, too. Let's hope this is not as close as we'll ever get.

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Accidental Hippies

Accidental Hippies

Sometime not long after my high school graduation I was studying at Michigan State University when my long-time girlfriend dumped me. I entered such a state of depression that I could not continue in college. So I dropped out and decided to hit the road with Chris Kingsley, my best friend in the world. Chris had much more experience of life on the road than I did, had actually hitched to ...

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