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I’ve never been a politically oriented person.  I don’t hold politicians in much high regard, and I do as little as I can to have anything to do with them, though I do vote every chance I get.  (The duties of a citizen rise above the politics of the state.)  I have my own political beliefs, though…

Last weekend (August 26-28, 2011) I attended the science fiction conference here in Albuquerque, Bubonicon 43.  This is my third year to attend and they’re always entertaining and informative.  A few comments and observations follow. The first panel discussion I attended was “I Know It When I See It:  What Exactly Is SF”  A lot…

I’ve been a scientist for quite a while now.  Over fifty screwed-up years.  I guess you could say my life as a scientist started in high school.  About that time I began to wonder what the heck I wanted to do with my life beyond graduation.  I’d taken several science courses in high school, biology and physics…

I was just reminded (a few minutes ago by a post on Facebook by the Sierra Club) of the importance of wilderness to our civilization.  The reminder took the form of a quote from my favorite environmentalist and philosopher, Joseph Wood Krutch. When I was a young man, I read many of the works of…

I’ve noticed that a number of articles and news stories have appeared in recent months about the possibility of life on other planets, including the physics behind the possibility and the attempts to find it.  Here’s a compilation of the few things I’ve seen.  First, a recent news report said that our earth-moon system is very stable.  Our moon is…

A new family moved into the apartment above me last week.  When I moved into my apartment last Fall, I was foolish enough to request a first-floor unit in order to make the move easier.  (Large pieces of furniture are hard to move upstairs.)  Now I’m wondering if I made the right choice.  As I sit here…

I stopped at the local Borders bookstore this morning.  They’re having a going-out-of-business sale, so I picked up a science fiction novel edited by George R.R. Martin.  (He’s the editor of the novel because the different chapters have been written by different authors).  It looked like an interesting concept, so I decided to buy it.  I…

Well, I finally heard from the editor who was looking over the manuscript of my first novel.  Most of the regular readers of this blog are probably aware that I’ve been working on a science fiction novel for quite a while now and am approaching (I hope) the time when it will be ready for…

I’m no expert in the art of writing, but I’ve noticed that in many of the things I’ve read over the past several years, whether fiction, nonfiction, how-to articles, whatever (while reading to improve my abilities as a writer), that there’s one primary thing that makes the better works stand out from the not-so good ones.  This…

What’s a book anymore?  If you, like me, spend long hours hunched over a computer keyboard (or a typewriter or a pad of paper), struggling to put words down that mean something, that have the serious intent of informing or entertaining, or both, especially words that run up into the high five-figure or low six-figure range, you can…

I’m going to go out on a limb in this blog and propose something that everybody will almost certainly reject.  I think blogging and self-publishing need some sort of gatekeeper. The explosion in self-publishing by electronic format is going to open the door to some of the most bilious writings you ever cast your bleary eyes on.  Self-publishing is…

As the time approaches for the editor who’s taking a look at my first novel to make his report (I hope it’s either good or bad, not indifferent) I find myself wondering about which form of publishing I should use for the final product.  Should I try the old standard method and find an agent and let him/her send…