The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Worldbuilding Workshop: After-Action Report

    On April 17 I ran a three-hour workshop on science fiction worldbuilding for the Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop. It was my first time teaching a class of any kind, so I think I learned as much as I hope my students did. The students were great. All ten of them were engaged, intelligent, and seemed…

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  • Publishers Weekly Reviews Godel Operation

    The first reviews of The Godel Operation are starting to trickle in as the release date approaches. Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say. Sounds like their reviewer enjoyed it. I hope everyone else does, too.  The Godel Operation  James L. Cambias. Baen, $16 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-982125-56-1  With this freewheeling story of an…

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  • Godel Operation Minus 10

    Ten days from now is the official publication date of The Godel Operation. The clocks are running, the pumps are powering up, and the gantry has been rolled back. Be sure to get a copy because this launch is going to be spectacular. If you want to read more about The Godel Operation, see my…

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  • In the Right Ballpark

    Last year I wrote a nine-part series of 'blog posts about the Drake Equation, the Fermi Paradox, the Great Filter, and how many civilizations are likely to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. If you want to re-read it, start here. To give away the ending, after a lot of discussion I would up estimating about…

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  • Let’s Build a World

    This Saturday, April 17, I'll be teaching "It Used to Take a Week," an online workshop on worldbuilding in science fiction for the Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop. This is a new step for me — I've never taught a class before. Except that I've done hundreds of convention panels and presentations over the years, and…

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  • Inception Et Cetera

    I recently saw the film Inception for the first time — I'm not sure why I didn't watch it when it came out, but I didn't. It's a great movie, and it helped me to understand a key difference between science fiction films and novels. A perennial gripe about SF in movies is that films…

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  • Look What’s Here!

    I was sitting at home minding my own business on Thursday when the dog started barking because a delivery truck was coming up our driveway. They're common enough nowadays, but this truck had come to deliver something I wasn't expecting for a couple of weeks yet: the first copies of my new novel The Godel…

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  • Appendix JLC

    Everyone who owned a copy of the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide knows about the legendary "Appendix N," in which Gary Gygax listed all the fictional influences on D&D. In recent years some younger gamers have rediscovered that list, leading to works like Jeffro Johnson's book Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons…

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  • Planetary Events Comes to Earth!

    Most of what I've been writing lately has been fiction — The Godel Operation, some short stories in the Billion Worlds setting, and the followup novel (still in progress). But I call myself a "writer and game designer" for a reason: I haven't given up on writing game stuff. Recently I decided to take the…

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  • The Songs of Distant Earth and the Roots of Inspiration

    For a long time I've enjoyed the music of Mike Oldfield — especially his longer, more complex works. Until a few years ago his stuff wasn't easy for me to get my hands on. Back when record shops existed, they didn't often carry his records. But with the rise of online music he's a lot…

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