Category: Writing
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Work In Progress: Corsair (Part 1)
A few months ago I wrote a How I Did It post about my short story "The Barbary Shore." In it I mentioned that I was expanding that story into a novel. In point of fact, I had nearly finished expanding it when I wrote that post — or so I thought. When I turned…
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Tolkien, Kipling, Lewis, and Wells
I recently received, as a birthday present from my talented wife, a copy of the 1909 edition of Rudyard Kipling's "With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D." If you aren't familiar with the story, it's a fascinating — and amazingly prescient — work of early science fiction by one of the English language's…
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How I Did It #11: “The Barbary Shore”
I love writing to an assigned theme. One of my longest-held beliefs about writing is that constraints improve one's creativity. There's something awfully daunting about a blank screen and the knowledge that you can write absolutely anything. It can cause creative paralysis, or a lot of abortive starts. But put down some boundaries and the…
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Thoughts on Dyson Spheres
One of the more interesting panels I attended at Chicon was the one about Dyson spheres. (I know what you're thinking: how long is this guy going to keep gassing about some convention he went to last month?) I learned some new things and it made me think in some new directions. Let me share…
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Chicon 7: The Third Day
The Crack Team breakfasted in the room again, and once more split up for separate activities. Because Saturday was the day leading up to the grand costume contest, the two younger members of the Crack Team wore their hall costumes: "Agent X" (an alien-fighting Man In Black), and the "Dalekette" (a Dalek-inspired showgirl outfit). I…
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ChiCon 7: The Second Day
Our Crack Team of congoers breakfasted in the room on muffins from one of the many coffeeshops in the warren of tunnels under the Illinois Center complex surrounding the hotel. We then showered, dressed, and went off to the convention. I attended a very entertaining and high-energy panel on "The New Pulp Fiction" featuring Adam…
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ChiCon 7: The First Day
Events at the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention got underway at noon on Thursday. I attended an interesting panel discussion about digital media, featuring Christopher Kastensmidt, Nancy Fulda, and Tom Dowd. Following that, I went to see the discussion of "Researching History That Never Happened" by Mary Robinette Kowal, Kenneth Hite, Adam Christopher, Martin…
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Readercon After-Action Report
This past weekend I was a participant at the 23rd annual Readercon convention in Burlington, Massachusetts. As always, I had a great time. The con (-vention) committee did their usual superb job of keeping everything running smoothly. These are fans who do this for fun, and yet manage to do a better job than many…
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Read About Readercon
Just as I do most summers, I'm going to be a participant at this year's Readercon. If you don't know what Readercon is, and you're interested in science fiction or fantasy literature, then you're missing what is simply the best annual meeting of its kind. This year they're working me hard on Friday, then I…
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Ray Bradbury
I never met him, but that's not important. Most writers aren't especially interesting in person. The most fascinating parts of their lives happen inside their heads. Flamboyant characters are good material for writers, but seldom make good writers themselves. (Example: Christopher Marlowe had a romantic and exciting life, and got knifed to death before he…
The Cambias Digression 