May 29, 2018
Though discovered nearly four years ago, an asteroid in orbit near Jupiter ( BZ509, or just “bee-zee” for short) is now said to be originally from outside our solar system. The aliens are here (have been here…). Continue Reading
May 20, 2018
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!
In his house at R’yleh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming…
…because of course his ancestral DNA was brought to Earth aboard an asteroid, as part of an ancient bombardment that seeded life…
Well, maybe not. It’s a controversial idea only in the sense that octopi are not aliens and no DNA can possibly have survived an asteroid bombardment hundreds of millions (or even billions) of years ago.
Still, asteroids seeding the universe is a fun idea for fiction writers. Which is the germ of my novel in progress…
https://qz.com/1281064/a-controversial-study-has-a-new-spin-on-the-otherworldliness-of-the-octopus/
March 25, 2018
It’s been a few days now since the “big reveal” that a social science researcher sold information from 50,000,000 Facebook users to a third party company (which used said info for various campaign purposes, but that’s another topic for another blog….).
Somehow, we all managed to be surprised by this. What about our right to privacy? How dare our personal information be used without our permission!
How did we all get so naïve about technology and its control over us?
March 10, 2018
It’s been six weeks since I decided to take a break from Facebook. Back in mid-January I took a screenshot to show students how to figure out which apps they used the most (Line, by far, in case you’re wondering, followed by YouTube… not surprisingly, since my students are all Japanese).
It was a little shocking to see that I was spending over 8 hours a week on FB on my iPhone. My train commute is about an hour and a half each way, and I go to campus four days a week. So basically I spent 2/3 of my train time looking at FB posts.
Yuck. What a waste of reading time. Continue Reading
February 16, 2018
Yes, yet another award for my science fiction novella, Adam’s Stepsons! This time, in the category of “E-book Science Fiction.”
The official rollout of the 2017 New Apple Awards hasn’t yet started (they announce winners in each category slowly over several weeks), but I felt I should announce it here anyway.
Competing against full-length science fiction novels, that’s not too bad!
I guess I really do need to write more. And more. And MORE.
December 29, 2017
A late Christmas surprise!
Adam’s Stepsons won Best Science Fiction in the Fall 2017 NABE (National Association of Book Entrepreneurs) Pinnacle Book Achievement Award contest.
It’s gratifying to see my novella appreciated, but it would be even better to hear from individual readers.
If you have read Adam’s Stepsons, please don’t hesitate to write what you think about it – even if it’s just a single sentence – on Amazon, Goodreads, your own blog, Twitter feed, or Facebook page, anywhere!
October 14, 2017
October 5, 2017
BookWorks has selected me as their weekly “Featured Author.”
Please check out the BookWorks pages for me and for Adam’s Stepsons, where you will find a free Chapter 1 (PDF).
May 17, 2017
It’s the final day for the Goodreads Giveaway for Adam’s Stepsons!
Enter by 5/17 for a chance to win 1 of 5 signed copies of “a masterful novella”!
March 28, 2017
The main character of my new SF novella Adam’s Stepsons, Dr. Johann Heimann, was modeled after a professor at my undergraduate college named…ah…let’s name him Professor R. He had the biggest office on campus, and he kept Sam Adams in a small fridge tucked under his desk. And he shared them liberally with students who stopped by. And he told great stories about Chevy Chase. A perfect model for a fictional scientist.
Prof. R. was a teacher of social economics. Which is why he spent all his free time keeping careful track of tiny pieces of paper from the 17th to the 19th century detailing who was responsible for maintaining what part of what county and state roads in nearby towns.
By “careful,” I mean of course hundreds of cardboard boxes haphazardly stacked around his office and often mislabeled or labeled with handwriting so cramped that medical doctors would be proud. Couldn’t help wondering if Sam Adams were to blame. Continue Reading
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