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Ecce Sigum – Immanentize the EmpathyEcce Sigum – Immanentize the Empathy Skip to content Ecce Sigum Immanentize the Empathy Home About Me Indexes Laboratory Notebooks Published Works and Literary Matters January 2026 Books and Reading Notes 2026-02-012026-02-02 John Winkelman January was a low-acquisition month until the last two days, when I drove to Novi to help run Magical ConFusion, and picked up half a dozen new books from the attending authors. Acquisitions Geetanjali Shree, The Roof Beneath Their Feet (And Other Stories) [2026.01.17] In Formation #3 [2026.01.21] Jordan Kurella, The Death of Mountains (Lethe Press) [2026.01.31] – Inscribed D.M. Beucler, Memory and Magic (Luna Press) [2026.01.31] – Inscribed Steph Campbell, A Constructs’ Nature: A solo-journaling TTRPG – [2026.01.31] Maurice Broaddus, The Knights of Breton Court (JABberwocky Literary Agency) [2026.01.31] The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Summer 2025 [2026.01.31] Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1993 [2026.01.31] Ashley Castañόn, Submerged [2026.01.31] – Inscribed Reading List Books Stephen Leigh, A Fading Sun [2026.01.02] New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.04] David T. Courtwright, The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business [2026.01.17] Todd Goddard, Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer’s Life [2026.01.23] New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.25] Short Prose Kameron Hurley, “The Flesh of Memory” [2026.01.02] Jeremy Pak Nelson, “Gaze Upon the Beating Dark”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.01] Jonathan Olfert, “White in the Eye”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.02] Kirk A. Johnson, “The Concord of the Outhar”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.03] Michael Moorcock, “A Portrait in Ivory”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.03] Oliver Brackenbury, “Hunter”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.03] Harry Turtledove, “The Jesting Jann”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.03] Dariel R. A. Quiogue, “Battle of the Nine Waters”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.04] June Orchid Parker, “A Serpent From the Ash”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4 [2026.01.04] Audrey Stollings, “The Dissolving City”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.09] Samir Sirk Morató, “In Perfection’s Shape I Writhe”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.10] Luana Saitta, “Staku-Ra’s Hoard”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.11] Timaeus Bloom, “The Lament of a Shieldman”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.11] Premee Mohamed, “The Maiden of the Serpent Moon”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.25] Bryn Hammond, “The Change”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.25] Molly Tanzer, “Jirel Meets Death”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2026.01.25] Posted in Book ListTagged Ashley Castañόn, D. M. Beucler, David T. Courtwright, Geetanjali Shree, Jim Harrison, Jordan Kurella, Kameron Hurley, Maurice Broaddus, Steph Campbell, Stephen Leigh, Todd Goddard comment on January 2026 Books and Reading Notes Weekly Round-up, January 31, 2026 2026-01-312026-01-29 John Winkelman I’m at Magical ConFusion this weekend, most likely sitting at the Operations desk. I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend and finding a way to stay warm. Next week I will travel to Philadelphia for work. This year got busy in a hurry. Reading Attempting another read of Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, but this book requires dedicated reading time, of which I have none. Writing Nothing of note. I brought one of my work-in-progress manuscripts to ConFusion to work on in my spare moments, but spare moments are few and far between. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Possession, Genius LociSetting: Small TownGenre: Utopian Listening “All You Zombies,” by Philadelphia’s own The Hooters, from their 1982 album Amore. Interesting Links “ICE not only looks and acts like a paramilitary force – it is one, and that makes it harder to curb” (Erica De Bruin, The Conversation) – ICE is Trump’s Tonton Macoute. Posted in Life comment on Weekly Round-up, January 31, 2026 Weekly Round-up, January 24, 2026 2026-01-242026-01-24 John Winkelman As I finish writing this post, late Saturday afternoon, the outside air temperature is about 6° Fahrenheit. That makes it about 20 degrees warmer than when I got out of bed this morning, a little after 5:00 am, when I stuck my head out the door just to experience probably the coldest air to ever touch my face. I didn’t like it. Twenty years ago I would have gone for a walk so I would know what a warm day in the Siberian gulags was like. But older me is less resilient to extreme temperatures, though the possibility of gulags gets closer every day. In Minneapolis, ICE is ramping up its murder of American citizens in the streets, which is exactly what every Trump voter intended. ICE is Trump’s gestapo, and every single one of them needs to be prosecuted, incarcerated for life, and all of their worldly wealth and possessions confiscated, so that neither they nor their families ever have any companionship, success or comfort, ever again. Let all ICE agents be cold, lonely, desperate, immiserated, and afraid until the end of their days. Fuck ICE. Fuck everyone who supports ICE in any capacity. Fuck the entire power structure which enables ICE. There. That’s my political thought for the day. Reading I finished The Age of Addiction, which was informative but lighter than I had hoped. I am indebted to the author, Dan Davies, for introducing me to the concept of “limbic capitalism,” which I will most certainly explore in the days to come. And yesterday morning I finished Devouring Time, Todd Goddard’s superb biography of Jim Harrison. Writing The current level of insanity has left me little time or energy to write anything creative outside of a rough draft of a poem here and there. And by “rough” I mean a line or two on which I might some day hang a stanza, which might be the seed of an actual poem one day. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Evolution, PoliticsSetting: FrontierGenre: Solarpunk Listening Rage Against the Machine, “Killing in the Name Of.” Interesting Links “Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion” (Henry Farrell, Abraham L. Newman, International Security 44.1 ) “The Great AI Displacement: Fracturing Tomorrow’s Labor Market” (Goran Lazarevski, Naked Capitalism) Posted in LifeTagged Rage Against the Machine comment on Weekly Round-up, January 24, 2026 Weekly Round-up, January 17, 2026 2026-01-172026-01-17 John Winkelman 2026 really isn’t messing around. Reading In my very few spare moments, working toward the end of The Age of Addiction. Writing One of my goals for the new year is to write at least a full page in my journal every day. Preferably two. I have plenty to write about, so the entries won’t be recursively self-reflective wankery. Nope. My wankery is ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE. But this new work project is devouring large chunks of my writing time, so I may need to play catch-up once the initial insanity is behind me. So maybe sometime in June. 2030. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Spiritual Beings, ArtSetting: SpaceGenre: Technothriller Listening Diana Ross, “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?” Interesting Links “The Day of the Dollar: Is it Over?” (Richard Murphy, Funding the Future) Posted in Life comment on Weekly Round-up, January 17, 2026 Weekly Round-up, January 10, 2026 2026-01-102026-01-12 John Winkelman I traveled to Chicago for a project kickoff this week, so this will be a light update. I have traveled a lot in the past six months. About as much as the previous five years combined. I realize here in the post-quarantine era that doesn’t mean much, but I find it to be exhausting. Travel like this would have been fun a decade or two ago and, more importantly, when I was single. Now it is tiresome and more than a little depressing, even when visiting cities like Chicago and Dallas. Most of what I see is through an office window, and at the end of the day I am too tired to go out and enjoy myself. At least the food is good. Reading David T. Courtwright’s The Age of Addiction. Limbic capitalism, baby! It is interesting and well-written, and is giving me ideas for some of my own writing, both fiction and non-fiction. And it must be said, it is a good wake-up call for how capitalism exploits human vulnerability. Then again this wake-up call has been shouted from the rooftops since the invention of advertising. Writing Little to no creative writing, but lots of code. Lots and lots and lots of code. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Addiction, ApocalypseSetting: FrontierGenre: Slipstream Listening Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Sixteen Tons.” Kind of the space my head is in right now. Interesting Links The 2026 State of the World talk, hosted by Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky, just started. Interesting stuff, as always. Posted in LifeTagged Tennessee Ernie Ford comment on Weekly Round-up, January 10, 2026 Weekly Round-up, January 3, 2026 2026-01-032026-01-04 John Winkelman I am at the end of two weeks off from work. This is the first real break I have had in well over a year. I have had time off, certainly, but most of that in 2025 involved some intensive travel, either for vacation or family obligations. And while fun and worthwhile, such vacations are not restful and restorative. This one was. I didn’t realize how exhausted I had become from the events, personal, national and global, of 2025, but instead of accomplishing the mountain of goals I had made for myself, I slept. A lot. Like, going to bed at 22:00 and waking up at 11:00. Repeatedly. It’s good that I had this break because when I return to work in a couple of days I will be travelling for much of the week. I haven’t had to travel for work since before the COVID lockdowns. When I was younger, this would have been exciting. Now it is just exhausting. Not that I won’t have the opportunity for a couple hours of fun here and there. Chicago is a city where Things Happen. Reading I started off the year by finishing A Fading Sun by Stephen Leigh, and now I am reading The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business, by David T. Courtwright. If I get nothing else out of this book, I am indebted to Courtwright for introducing to my lexicon the phrase “limbic capitalism.” Writing When I finally pulled myself out of bed for long enough to accomplish anything, I finished transcribing a large-ish pile of poetry from the last couple of my journals. I am re-creating my writing-editing-submitting pipeline in my spare moments. Since I have been writing poetry off and on for over 30 years, I have a lot of old work to review and organize. Not that I really expect the world to still exist come this time next year, but it would be nice to release some more poetry into the wild. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Death, MutantsSetting: WastelandGenre: Western Listening Sick Dick and the Volkwagens, “Flame Flows Down,” from their album Interference. Recorded somewhere around 1980. Yes, I just read The Crying of Lot 49. Interesting Links “AI and systemic risk” (Stephen Cecchetti, Robin Lumsdaine, Tuomas Peltonen, Antonio Sánchez Serrano, VoxEU/CEPR) “How China’s Overinvestment Helped Produce Africa’s Deindustrialization” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism) – A long discussion of the article “Africa deindustrialises due to China’s overproduction and Trump’s tariffs” by Patrick Bond, in which Bond heavily references the book The Material Geographies of the Belt and Road Initiative: Infrastructures and Political Ecologies on the New Silk Road, edited by Elia Apostolopoulou, Han Cheng, Jonathan Silver, and Alan Wiig. The book can be read online at the link or downloaded as a PDF. There is a lot of information here, and it is all of interest for anyone following the shifting global power structures here in the mid-2020s. “Fascintern Media” (Robin Berjon) “The Post-American Internet” (Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic) Posted in LifeTagged Sick Dick and the Volkswagens December 2025 Books and Reading Notes 2026-01-012025-12-31 John Winkelman December was a surprisingly book-heavy month, fueled in large part by me taking a full two weeks off from work. This is the first vacation in a long time where I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything for the entire break. So I read. A lot. And I wrote in my journal. And I slept a lot. I didn’t set out to pick up so many books in December, but opportunities to increase my collection just kept appearing. If you look at the dates where I completed reading books, you will see that they start at the beginning of my time off. And they continue right through to the end of the year. I am still reading, and will likely complete at least one more book before I return to work on Monday. One additional note: Two of the books i read – The Crying of Lot 49 and The Poppy War – I picked up from the Grand Rapids Public Library. One of my goals for the new year is to spend a lot more time at the library. I love acquiring new books, but collecting is expensive and the library is only a few blocks from my house. Acquisitions Reading material I acquired in the month of December, 2025 Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, Let This Radicalize You (Haymarket Books) [2025.12.07] New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2025.12.11] New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #6 [2025.12.11] New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #7 [2025.12.11] Katelyn Millett, From the Stillness Within [2025.12.20] – Kate is a local poet and for a time was a student in the Tai Chi class. She has some serious talent. David Day, An Atlas of Tolkien [2025.12.22] – Received as a Christmas gift from my wonderful partner. Scott Krieger, Certain Lightnings (Grand River Poetry Press) [2025.12.23] -Received as a gift from the author. Arthur Waley (translator), The Books of Songs [2025.12.23] – Received as a gift from Scott K. Wu-chi Liu, Irving Lo (editors), Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry (Indiana University Press) [2025.12.23] – Received as a gift from Scott K. Pat Thomas, Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground: Covers & Essays 1957 – 1973 (Fantagraphics) [2025.12.29] – A Christmas present to myself, to complete my collection of Evergreen Review anthologies. Varlam Shalamov (Donald Rayfield, translator), Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories (New York Review Books) [2025.12.30] – A Christmas present to myself, to go along with Kolyma Stories, which I picked up a few years back. I had no idea there was a second volume to this set. Reading List Books Books I read in the month of December 2025. Ivan Turgenev (Charles and Natasha Hepburn, translators), A Sportsman’s Notebook [2025.12.22] Christine Stephens-Krieger, Love Garden at the End of the World [2025.12.23] Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 [2025.12.27] Scott Krieger, Certain Lightnings [2025.12.28] R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War [2025.12.29] Short Prose Jim C. Hines, “Images of Death” [2025.12.01] Kameron Hurley, “Mother” [2025.12.04] Jim C. Hines, “Crimson Frost” [2025.12.28] Posted in Book ListTagged Arthur Waley, Christine Stephens Krieger, Ivan Turgenev, Jim C. Hines, Kameron Hurley, Katelyn Millett, Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba, New Edge Sword and Sorcery, R.F. Kuang, Scott Krieger, Thomas Pynchon, Varlam Shalamov Happy New Year! 2025-12-312025-12-31 John Winkelman While I can’t say I expect 2026 to be a better year than was 2025, I feel better prepared to weather the slings and arrows. Things may improve, or they may not. It is clear that the upcoming year will be interesting. As Antonio Gramsci wrote, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” This is always the case, everywhere, all the time, simply because our ideas of “new” look a lot like the old with a new coat of paint. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year, and that 2026 is more gentle and nurturing than was 2025. Posted in Life Weekly Round-up, December 27, 2025 2025-12-272025-12-27 John Winkelman Here we are in the last weekly round-up of the year. I am in the middle of a two-week break from work, which was long overdue, and not even remotely adequate. But the holidays are a break from work, not really a restful, relaxing time, except in the spare moments when not being sociable. Reading I just finished Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, and it was wonderful and weird. This was my first Pynchon, and I may need to wait a bit before diving in again. Writing I don’t have much to report here. Maybe in the second week of my vacation I will have some energy and focus. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Dreams, RobotsSetting: FrontierGenre: Literary Fiction Listening Traffic, “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys,” from their 1971 album of the same name. This song entered my head through a silly little meme which was fed to me by the Facebook algorithm. And it is beautiful! Interesting Links “The Politics Of Superintelligence” (James O’Sullivan, Noema) “The “machinal bypass” and how we’re using AI to avoid ourselves” (Deanna M. Kaplan, Roman Palitsky, and Charles L. Raison, Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences) The pulled 60 Minute segment on CECOT “The Kill Switch” (Parker Molloy, The Present Age) “American Reality from Chinese Perspective” (Karl Sanchez) – The real poverty line is $140,000 a year. Posted in LifeTagged Traffic Weekly Round-up, December 20, 2025 2025-12-202025-12-19 John Winkelman And just like that, I am finished with work for the year. This past week was hectic but fun. Last weekend my partner and I drove to Novi so that I could attend a ConCom meeting for Magical ConFusion. While I was in the meeting Z sat in the hotel restaurant working on her business Gallafe, which she is re-launching in January. We arrived at the hotel Saturday and immediately set out looking for food, which we found in abundance at Bi Bim Bap inside the Atrium of Novi. The food overall was very good, and the kimchi was ferociously spicy and (assisted by a hot toddy back at the hotel) scorched my cold-ridden sinuses clean. Highly recommended. On Sunday, after the meeting, we met up with a friend at the Basil Bowl on Haggerty, which is also excellent, and offers good food for when one is recovering from a cold or a hangover. This past Wednesday, Z and I drove over to the Frederick Meijer Gardens to experience Enlighten, which was most excellent. Fortunately the outdoor temperature Wednesday evening was considerably warmer than the past few weeks, so the two-plus hours we spend wandering the mile-long path through the installation was comfortable and enjoyable. If you have a tolerance for being outside in the snow, I highly recommend attending. Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MichiganLight show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MichiganLight show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MichiganLight show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MichiganLight show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan Reading I am about three quarters of the way through A Sportsman’s Notebook, and should be able to complete it by the end of the year. Then on to the next thing. Writing I didn’t have time to write anything new this week. However, when reviewing the links in my Literary Matters page I discovered that Coffin Bell, the online journal which published my short story “Occupied Space,” has closed. So I have now published “Occupied Space” here on my website. Weekly Writing Prompt Subject: Mutants, FaeSetting: LabyrinthGenre: Fantasy Listening Scott Krieger reading from his new book of poetry, Certain Lightnings. Christine Stephens Krieger reading poems from her new book Love Garden at the End of the World. Interesting Links “The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year” (Emily Temple, Literary Hub) “America’s collapsing consumption is the world’s disenshittification opportunity” (Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic) Posted in LifeTagged Christine Stephens Krieger, Grand River Poetry Collective, Scott Krieger Posts navigation Older posts SearchSearch Archives Archives Select Month February 2026  (1) January 2026  (6) December 2025  (6) November 2025  (6) October 2025  (7) September 2025  (5) August 2025  (5) July 2025  (6) June 2025  (7) May 2025  (7) April 2025  (6) March 2025  (7) February 2025  (5) January 2025  (6) December 2024  (7) November 2024  (6) October 2024  (6) September 2024  (6) August 2024  (7) July 2024  (6) June 2024  (8) May 2024  (6) April 2024  (7) March 2024  (7) February 2024  (6) January 2024  (6) December 2023  (7) November 2023  (3) October 2023  (2) September 2023  (2) August 2023  (2) July 2023  (4) June 2023  (3) May 2023  (2) April 2023  (2) March 2023  (3) February 2023  (2) January 2023  (5) December 2022  (10) November 2022  (10) October 2022  (12) September 2022  (10) August 2022  (11) July 2022  (11) June 2022  (10) May 2022  (13) April 2022  (10) March 2022  (11) February 2022  (5) January 2022  (12) December 2021  (8) November 2021  (7) October 2021  (7) September 2021  (6) August 2021  (8) July 2021  (6) June 2021  (8) May 2021  (7) April 2021  (7) March 2021  (11) February 2021  (11) January 2021  (14) December 2020  (7) November 2020  (6) October 2020  (6) September 2020  (11) August 2020  (4) July 2020  (4) June 2020  (6) May 2020  (6) April 2020  (7) March 2020  (5) February 2020  (7) January 2020  (8) December 2019  (5) November 2019  (5) October 2019  (4) September 2019  (5) August 2019  (5) July 2019  (5) June 2019  (4) May 2019  (4) April 2019  (6) March 2019  (8) February 2019  (6) January 2019  (12) December 2018  (9) November 2018  (5) October 2018  (8) September 2018  (7) August 2018  (8) July 2018  (3) June 2018  (3) May 2018  (4) April 2018  (5) March 2018  (4) February 2018  (12) January 2018  (8) June 2017  (1) January 2017  (2) December 2016  (3) November 2016  (2) October 2016  (1) January 2016  (1) October 2015  (1) September 2015  (1) August 2015  (1) July 2015  (1) June 2015  (4) May 2015  (6) April 2015  (3) March 2015  (6) February 2015  (4) January 2015  (8) May 2014  (7) April 2014  (1) March 2014  (1) February 2014  (4) January 2014  (4) December 2013  (1) September 2012  (2) May 2012  (1) April 2012  (3) March 2012  (2) February 2012  (6) January 2012  (4) December 2011  (3) November 2011  (8) October 2011  (15) September 2011  (1) July 2011  (1) June 2011  (1) May 2011  (4) March 2011  (2) February 2011  (3) January 2011  (5) September 2010  (1) August 2010  (6) July 2010  (1) May 2010  (1) April 2010  (4) March 2010  (10) January 2010  (4) December 2009  (1) November 2009  (3) September 2009  (1) August 2009  (1) July 2009  (2) May 2009  (1) April 2009  (4) March 2009  (1) February 2009  (3) January 2009  (1) December 2008  (2) November 2008  (4) October 2008  (8) September 2008  (11) August 2008  (7) July 2008  (3) June 2008  (9) May 2008  (9) April 2008  (8) March 2008  (12) February 2008  (9) January 2008  (10) December 2007  (7) November 2007  (9) October 2007  (3) September 2007  (6) August 2007  (6) July 2007  (9) June 2007  (12) May 2007  (13) April 2007  (22) February 2007  (3) January 2007  (3) December 2006  (4) November 2006  (5) October 2006  (1) September 2006  (4) August 2006  (1) July 2006  (4) June 2006  (3) May 2006  (4) April 2006  (7) March 2006  (3) February 2006  (3) January 2006  (2) December 2005  (3) November 2005  (3) October 2005  (4) September 2005  (7) August 2005  (7) July 2005  (5) June 2005  (10) May 2005  (5) April 2005  (5) March 2005  (5) February 2005  (10) January 2005  (7) December 2004  (4) November 2004  (7) October 2004  (10) September 2004  (10) August 2004  (8) July 2004  (8) June 2004  (12) May 2004  (7) April 2004  (5) March 2004  (11) February 2004  (11) January 2004  (14) December 2003  (11) November 2003  (9) October 2003  (12) September 2003  (9) August 2003  (14) July 2003  (11) June 2003  (13) May 2003  (13) April 2003  (18) March 2003  (15) February 2003  (13) January 2003  (18) December 2002  (18) November 2002  (15) October 2002  (8) September 2002  (13) August 2002  (9) July 2002  (12) June 2002  (4) May 2002  (7) April 2002  (3) March 2002  (5) February 2002  (7) January 2002  (15) December 2001  (3) August 2000  (1) Categories Categories Select Category Blogging  (15) Book List  (74) Current Events  (12) Fiction  (4) Issues  (9) Life  (470) Links and Notes  (53) Literary Matters  (384) Music  (72) Photography  (197) Poetry  (2) Politics  (4) Programming  (204) Video  (1) Writing  (7) © 2026 Ecce Sigum Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: x-blog by wpthemespace.comenusen-UShttps://eccesignum.org

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