That Time of Year

It’s that time of year when everything seems to happen at once. The kids have something going on every night. This evening, my wife’s cousin came to visit. They are in Tucson for a week and drove up to Scottsdale for a few hours with my wife and her mother…. Continue reading

Fun on the Freeway

This evening, I had the pleasure to get on the freeway to drive home, only to discover the freeway was closed due to an accident at a major interchange. Fortunately, they were able to divert traffic on the freeway that crosses the one that closed. I take Loop 101 most… Continue reading

Sundries

Also Ran Back in February, I announced that my story Oh, Mallary! had been nominated for the James B. Baker Award for best short story published in a Sam’s Dot Publishing publication. (can anybody say conjugate?) I did not win. In the category of short story, the winner is:416175, by… Continue reading

Who is Right?

Continuing on yesterday’s topic. As I mentioned yesterday, Orson Scott Card has written about the demise of science fiction. (If anybody has a link to this, I’d appreciate sharing.) I don’t think it’s dead, just maturing. Who is right? I think we both are. Let me explain. Card is probably… Continue reading

Fantasy vs Science Fiction

Further thoughts on the track I’ve been taking this week. Fantasy vs Science Fiction. Why is Fantasy selling better than Science Fiction? I don’t mean now, I mean for the past fifteen years. Is Fantasy inherently better than Science Fiction? Clearly, that’s an answer that can only be a matter… Continue reading

More About SF – Pseudo-Fantasy

Second-to-last post I talked about hard SF. (Last time I talked about a guitar string.) This time, let’s go back a few posts and pick up on something I assigned to the category of science fiction but called pseudo-fantasy. What is pseudo-fantasy? I threw out the example of Anne McCaffrey’s… Continue reading

Dried Up Tuner

I bought a Korg tuner today, mainly because I have trouble keeping the bass strings on my guitar in tune. It’s a good metronome and a fair enough tuner. I proceeded to tune my guitar and my son’s bass. I discovered a strange effect on my low E string. The… Continue reading

Hard SF

Let’s continue yesterday’s discussion. Just what is hard SF? Hard science fiction is a story where some aspect of science or technology, usually speculative, is so critical that the story collapses when it is removed. Imagine Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama without Rama. No story. (Side note: the linked… Continue reading

What is Science Fiction

I managed 890 words on Rigel Kentaurus today, which brings to mind the comment I made yesterday about discussiing hard SF today. Just what is science fiction? Most people picture movies like Star Wars or the television show Star Trek when they think about science fiction. Wrong. What, you say?… Continue reading

A New Idea

Believe it or not, I recently had the kernel of a fantasy novel jump into my head. Anybody who knows my writing also knows that I rarely write fantasy. I tend toward the hard SF* side of the spectrum. Part of the problem with me and fantasy is the same… Continue reading