The Cambias Digression

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

  • Work In Progress: Corsair (Part 2)

    As I mentioned previously, Corsair had its origin in a short story for a pirate-themed anthology. So when I began to expand it into a novel, one of my guiding principles was that it had to remain a pirate story — even though it's about a nerdish spacecraft hijacker 17 years in the future. This…

    jamescambias

  • City Life

    In my after-action report on the Arisia convention I mentioned that the "Future of Cities" panel had crystallized some ideas that had been floating around inside my head. The panelists spent a lot of time discussing problems that afflict modern cities, particularly the metropoli of the northeastern United States. Congestion, sprawl, and the need for…

    jamescambias

  • Post-Arisia Report

    I arrived at the Westin Hotel in Boston on Friday the 18th just as the convention was getting underway, and spent some time checking out the dealer room and saying hello to new arrivals. I did manage to attend one panel: "The Man Who Sold The Moon," featuring Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop stalwart Steven Popkes…

    jamescambias

  • Game of Thrones

    Some members of the Crack Team have become devoted fans of the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. Consequently I've seen my share of episodes. It's a good show, with great actors.  It also reveals something very interesting about a change in how people…

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  • Viddy the Squiddy

    Here's a neat news story: the first video footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat. Since I don't get the Discovery Channel, I'll have to be satisfied with looking at bootleg snippets on Youtube until the documentary finally makes it to Netflix. However, one line in the news story caught my attention: that…

    jamescambias

  • Arisia 2013, Featuring ME

    Next week I'm going to be a program participant at the always interesting Arisia convention in Boston, held at the Westin Waterfront hotel. My schedule, in case you want to follow me around and bask in my brilliance: Saturday (January 19) at 11:30 a.m.: Cambridge SF Workshop Flash Fiction Reading. The members of the coolest…

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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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  • A Book About Venice

    I love Venice, and I have enjoyed Peter Ackroyd's work in the past, so I was very pleased and excited when I got his book Venice: Pure City. But as I read it I became more and more frustrated and disappointed.  Mr. Ackroyd attempts to paint a portrait of Venice, incorporating its history, its art, its mix…

    jamescambias

  • A Christmas Tradition

    Long-time readers of this 'blog know that I like to put up a link every Christmas to my favorite holiday-themed Web site in the whole world: the NORAD Santa Tracker. This year, think a moment about the people who created that site. Their normal job is air defense. Three hundred and sixty-four days a year…

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  • Confederacy of Dunces: Ahead of Its TIme

    I recently started re-reading John Kennedy Toole's great comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces. For a New Orleanian, it's kind of like Scotsmen reading Burns. It's our "national literature." It's also a very funny book. And, for the first time, I realized it's a prescient book. The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, spends most of…

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The Worldbuilding Index