The Cambias Digression

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

  • What’s The Big Idea?

    This is the Big Idea.

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  • A New Blog

    The United Nations Interstellar Cooperation Agency has a new blog devoted to their Ilmatar interstellar mission. Check it out here. There's also a link to a site with some cool HENRI KERLEREC merchandise.

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  • Arisia 2014 — Featuring ME!

    This coming weekend I'm off to romantic Boston for the Arisia 2014 convention at the largely parasite-free Westin Hotel. If you want to stop by and see me, here's my schedule. Friday, 10:00 P.M.: Military SF: When Diplomacy Fails A panel on military SF, moderated by Alexander Jablokov, with me, Debra Doyle, Dennis McCunney, and…

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  • The Lost Age of Romance

    What do James Bond, Don Quixote, and steampunk fiction have in common? I was talking with one of my kids about Don Quixote, and something struck me. In Cervantes's novel, the elderly Quixote is a Spanish gentleman whose wits become addled from reading too many romances of chivalry. He begins to think of himself as…

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  • How to Authorify, Part 2

    A Darkling Sea sat on my disk drive until 2012, when two things happened. The first was that David Hartwell invited me to his Hard SF Minicon in Westport, New York — chronicled here. That was a very entertaining weekend and gave me the opportunity to meet Gregory Benford in person. Mr. Benford apparently enjoyed…

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  • How To Authorify, Part 1

    I may have mentioned that I have a book coming out. Some readers may be interested in finding out how one gets to the point of having a book coming out. For aspiring writers who want to know how it works, or interested bystanders, here's what happened. I started to write A Darkling Sea around 1998,…

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  • Three Thumbs Up

    Rounding out the trifecta with Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, now Booklist also gives A Darkling Sea a starred review in their December 15 issue. Apparently 2014 is going to be the year of big eyeless lobster-like aliens in literature. Get on the bandwagon now and start writing your erotic Darkling Sea fan fiction!

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  • Read an Excerpt From A Darkling Sea

    If you want to see what all the fuss is about, the Tor.com Web site has an excerpt from my forthcoming novel A Darkling Sea. (Inside joke for SF people: now I know how to sell a story to Tor.com. Write it as part of a novel, and sell the novel to Tor.)

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  • Two Thumbs Up

    Publishers Weekly just released their review of A Darkling Sea. Short summary: they like it. I may need to hire a contractor to alter all the doorways in my house so my head will still fit through them.

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  • Winter’s Tales

    Winter has arrived. One can go by the calendar, using either December 1 as the start of the "winter months," or use the Winter Solstice. The latter is beloved of radio disk jockeys and talk show hosts, who love to announce on December 22 that "this is the official beginning of winter" and mock those…

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