The Cambias Digression

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

  • In Memoriam

    There is sorrow enough in the natural wayFrom men and women to fill our day;And when we are certain of sorrow in store,Why do we always arrange for more?Brothers and Sisters, I bid you bewareOf giving your heart to a dog to tear. Buy a pup and your money will buyLove unflinching that cannot lie…

    jamescambias

  • Scarab Mission NOW Available

    I have eyewitness confirmation from a friend that my new novel The Scarab Mission has reached bookstores. Or a bookstore, anyway. I'm assuming the distributor isn't just shipping to one retailer. So to everyone who has been waiting for a copy, go forth and buy! And if your local store doesn't have The Scarab Mission,…

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  • Radio Active

    My media presence continues to spread. In addition to podcasts, blogs, and social media, now I'm on AM radio! I was a guest on WHMP in Northampton, talking about (what else?) The Scarab Mission. You can listen to that episode here (my segment starts at the 31 minute mark).  Megan Zinn, the interviewer, had a…

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  • Boskone 60

    This coming Friday I'll be at Boskone, the longest-running SF convention in New England, at the dear old Westin Seaport hotel in Boston. If you want to stop in and see me in person, my convention schedule is here: FRIDAY, February 17 4:00 p.m.: Serving Up a Tasty World — There's more to fictional dining than…

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  • Unexpectedly Serious Musings

    The economist Robin Hanson has a wonderful wide-ranging curiosity. He developed the "Great Filter" concept for SETI, and wrote a paper about expanding alien civilizations and what it means if we haven't detected them. Now he's tackling the ideological divide in our society, the so-called "culture war" by examining how it derives from what people…

    jamescambias

  • Howard Hughes Vindicated!

    DARPA, the Defense Department's official mad-scientist branch, has signed contracts with two companies to develop a super-heavy-lift flying boat for military transport. Here's the article from the US Naval Institute Web site. Why resurrect a technology which has been sidelined for seventy years? Since the end of World War II flying boats have hung on…

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  • I’ve Got A Little List . . .

    The nice people at Shepherd.com asked me to submit a list of five book recommendations. I chose "The Best Novels About Exploring Big Things In Space." It's kind of a funny coincidence that I chose that topic, right when I have a book out about people exploring a ruined space habitat. Their site has loads…

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  • DiFilippo on Scarabs

    Paul DiFilippo put up a very kind review of The Scarab Mission in his Locus column. You can read it here, at Locus Online. The summary: he liked it. The review calls Scarab a "rousing, unstoppable, non-stop adventure," which is good to hear. That's what I wanted to write, but you never know if you…

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  • FOUND!

    Good news for everyone waiting to get a trade paperback copy of The Scarab Mission: the lost copies have been found! According to my publisher, "they should be going where they were supposed to this week."  I'll send a signed bookplate to whoever comments first that they got their copy. (And to anyone else who…

    jamescambias

  • The Big Idea: Writing For Games vs. Writing Fiction

    I wrote a guest post for John Scalzi's Whatever blog, discussing my work writing roleplaying games and how that affected my fiction. You can find it here. For visual interest, check out the cover of Weird War I!  

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