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Good Enough To Be Published
Read more: Good Enough To Be PublishedOver the past eighteen years, I’ve written three science fiction novels, each about 125,000 words. That’s just the word count of each of the manuscripts as they exist today, and doesn’t take into account all the re-writing and revisions I’ve made over the years, especially to the first. The total number of different words I’ve put into…
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A Cancer Moonshot
Read more: A Cancer MoonshotSeveral months ago, President Obama announced what he termed a “moonshot” type of program to finally conquer cancer. An admirable idea, and let me go on record as saying I’m all for it. It’s being called a moonshot because we’re spending billions of dollars to achieve an easily visualized goal, like landing a man on the…
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The Next Two Hundred Years
Read more: The Next Two Hundred YearsSeveral weeks ago I chanced to see a Facebook post about some predictions an artist had made in the early 20th Century of what life would be like a hundred years later, i.e., in the early 21st Century. (I’m talking about the time around 1910, here.) The predictions were interesting, but what came through for me…
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Teaching Writing
Read more: Teaching WritingI’ve noticed on Facebook recently some postings from at least one (possibly more) famous author(s) that are essentially advertisements for writing programs that purport to help the person who responds to the ad learn to write novels like the famous author. Some even say “I’ll teach you to write like me.” I’m a little concerned…
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Pike’s Peak Meeting, 2016
Read more: Pike’s Peak Meeting, 2016Well, I’m back from the 2016 edition of the Pike’s Peak Writers Conference which was held in Colorado Springs around the middle of April. Always a good meeting. Plenty of good workshops to attend, speakers to hear, and people to talk to. I usually have something to say in this venue about one or more of…
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It’s All In The Head
Read more: It’s All In The HeadLast week I posted a segment on the lack of imagination in science fiction today, with a view toward how so many sci-fi characters are humanoid in appearance. Now I want to take a short look at what I’m talking about when I say “humanoid.” In the evolution of animals over the past two billion years or…
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A Serious Lack Of Imagination
Read more: A Serious Lack Of ImaginationI believe there is a serious lack of imagination in science fiction today. At least in one particular facet of the genre. To illustrate what I’m talking about, let’s take a look at some recent results that have come from the world of astronomy. For more than four years, the Kepler Space Telescope has been…
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A Trip To The Bookstore
Read more: A Trip To The BookstoreI usually write these blog posts on Sunday afternoon, after my regular stop at one of the local bookstores in the Albuquerque area. Today was no exception. The first thing I check after entering is the magazine rack of news journals to see what people are saying about national and international politics. (Right now that’s the 2016…
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Too Many Facts
Read more: Too Many FactsWell, we’re embroiled in another presidential campaign season in the United States, and facts, figures, and allegations are flying around the multiverse like bees defending a hive. I’m not much of a politician (I don’t want to be) and I try to avoid political conversations, though I do have very definite opinions about most of…
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All-Time Worst
Read more: All-Time WorstThis is an admittedly unscientific poll, but I’ve noticed over the years that the most common grammatical error across all types of writings seems to be the confusion of the word “you’re,” with the word “your.” Most of the time it occurs as the use of “your” when the writer meant “you’re.” But it pops up everywhere. I’ve seen it in all sorts…
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Heinlein’s Rules
Read more: Heinlein’s RulesI had an occasion a few days ago to revisit on the web Robert Heinlein’s rules of writing, and to reconsider as to how I felt about them. For those who are not familiar with the rules, laid down by the iconic sci-fi author, here they are. You must write. (Of course.) You must finish what…