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Last week in my regular blog I wrote that we shouldn’t expect astronomers to find an Earth-sized planet out there very soon.  I may have spoken too soon.  After that […]

A few days ago I read an online article about how astronomers had discovered a new planet outside our solar system that seemed to be similar in size and density to […]

Over most of the last rather ignominious years of my life I’ve watched the English language change in several ways, many for the better, many not.  (For example, “impact” has now become a […]

I just got through checking the grammar on a science-fiction novelette which I have decided is finished, at least to the point of submitting it to a magazine for publication.  I use […]

It’s that time of year again.  Time for all of those who are writing a novel (or trying to) to think about getting involved with NaNoWriMo.  For all my non-writing friends, that’s […]

As someone interested in science fiction as well as regular science, I tend to watch the news for articles about life on other planets, especially outside our solar system.  The most recent […]

Remember the old television series “Mission Impossible”?  It ran from 1966 to 1973 and featured an ultra-secret team of spies and covert operators who carried out highly sensitive missions for […]

On one of the ubiquitous episodes of Seinfeld that populate late evening television fare, Jerry Seinfeld asks why people would keep books once they’ve read them.  Apparently Jerry either doesn’t read […]

I’ll have to admit right up front that the title of this posting, “The Plausible Impossible,” is a term I didn’t make up, but got it from another source.  But […]

As a beginning writer, I’ve been told frequently and I’ve read many times never to use the passive voice in writing.  (One critic even said it leads to effeminacy and homosexuality.)  It’s […]

I just got back from Bubonicon 45, the science-fiction convention held here in Albuquerque every August.  For those of us interested in science fiction, either reading it or writing it or watching […]

Two of the most common literary devices that science fiction authors use to give their stories a real “science fiction” feel are time travel and faster-than-light travel.  We sci-fi writers do that to get our characters around […]