The Cambias Digression

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

  • Welcome to Arkad’s World!

    Today's the official publication date for my new book Arkad's World! Copies should be hitting the brick-and-mortar stores this week, and are already available for ordering online, so if you're wondering what to do with those gift cards or bundles of cash Santa left in your stocking, wonder no longer. If you want a signed…

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  • Countdown to Arkad

    Five days to go before Arkad's World hits the shelves! If you're wondering what to do with that Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card Santa put in your stocking, try the novel that Booklist calls ". . . a feat of world-building: an expansive, believable setting with fascinating aliens, compelling mysteries, and a rich sense of…

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  • Pop Culture: Hold On to Your Hats!

    As cultures develop a large and relatively affluent middle class, they develop what we call "pop culture." The upper class have "high culture" more or less by definition, and the lower class don't have the leisure time or spare wealth to create culture at all. Tom Wolfe chronicled this in post-WWII America, as people got…

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  • Tales of the Time Patrol: The Wild Bunch

    We recently re-watched Sam Peckinpah's famous gritty Western The Wild Bunch. This time around I realized something: at least one of the titular Bunch is a secret agent of the Time Patrol. The moment of revelation comes when the gang arrive at the headquarters of the corrupt Mexican warlord General Mapache and see the General's…

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  • Arkad’s World Review From Booklist

    One of the most anxious times for a writer is just before the book hits the stores, at the moment when the first reviews appear. You may like what you've written, your editor may like it, your wife and the people in your writing workshop may like it . . . but none of that…

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  • Look What Arrived!

    Christmas came about a week early this year! Look what arrived: freshly-printed copies of Arkad's World! If these volumes have reached my house, there's at least a sporting chance copies are getting to Amazon's warehouses or your local bookstore. Get your copy now! I honestly believe this is the best thing I've written. Getting it…

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  • Post-Thanksgiving Food Bragging Post

    This year we had two and a half guests for Thanksgiving1and so decided to really pull out all the stops for an epic meal. The menu: Hors d'Oeuvres Pickled Herring in Sour Cream    Oyster Patties Cremant de Bourgogne Viandes Roast Stuffed Breast of Turkey    Sous-Vide Breast Turkey en Mole Juliénas Beaujolais Legumes Oyster Stuffing    Tamales Roasted Brussels Sprouts    Roasted…

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  • Watch the Skies!

    If you do, and you're in the Southern Hemisphere looking at the constellation Norma, you might see a supernova, accompanied by a gamma-ray burst. Any day now . . . which of course means any day in the next few thousand years. Astronomical events take place over long time scales, except when they don't.

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  • Mr. President, We May Be Looking . . .

    . . . at a wargames GAP! Apparently the Pentagon needs to find replacements for the generation of beardy wargame grognards who are starting to fail their final saving rolls. Here's an article about the problem from War on the Rocks.  

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  • Things I Want Other People to Write

    I've never written fan fiction. When I was young, it felt like cheating or plagiarism to write a story set in someone else's fictional setting, or using their characters. (This was before the whole concept of "shared worlds" or "expanded universes" arose, and all works actually had a single identifiable creator.) And when I was…

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The Worldbuilding Index