Through purest serendipity, there will be a conference on Germaine de Stael here in St. Louis in May. About five years ago I started working on an alternate history set in 1923 French America. The conceit is that Napoleon never sold Louisiana to the United States, but managed to keep it. There are several reasons for this, a few of them historically legitimate, but it is a science fiction novel after all. In the course of researching the whole Napoleonic era, I stumbled on this woman, de Stael, and came to regard her as a phenom. She was one of the few people toward whom Napoleon seems to have shown actual fear and the only woman, as far as I can tell, and I became intrigued. …
Category: Science Fiction
Nebulas
It is a bright award, a tower of lucite with a galaxy suspended in the upper half and a gold plaque on the lower with a name a title and a year. A Nebula Award. I’ve held two of them in my hands and I’d like to have one of my own.
Alas, it is likely not to be. I fly too far below the radar of those who vote on such things.
Be that as it may, as a member of SFWA, I always vote. I do try to vote for the best piece of work on the ballot and it’s always gratifying when it turns out that I’ve read enough stories and books to have somewhat of an informed opinion. …
Anniversary…of sorts
I dug up an old diary a few months ago. From time to time I’ve tried to keep one of these, sometimes going so far as to try for journal status, but I just can’t seem to sustain it. So there are these relics lying about that occasionally unearth that give me a glimpse into what daily weirdness I was into back in 19—
The 20th Century.  That’s when I did a great deal of this sort of thing. I suppose ultimately that my own life bores me while I’m living it. Or maybe I’m too busy living it to record it. …
New Words
I’ve been working on a novella lately and this past week I found myself fully immersed in it. I found the groove, so to speak, and have been barreling ahead with considerable glee. It’s the thing about writing I most love and the thing that hasn’t been there for several months, not since I finished my historical and mailed it off in May. Even before that it was sporadic.
But I’ve slipped into the stream on this one and I owe it to a couple of perceptive editorial remarks from the people to whom I’d like to sell it. That part I haven’t had for years now. …
Attic Thoughts
Doing the Shelfari thing has been both fun and frustrating. I always prided myself on my memory, but it amazes me to discover just how porous it really is. Titles keep occurring to me at odd moments now that I’ve got my hard drive working on all this recall. Plus the annoyance of remembering titles but being unable to recall having actually read the book.
For instance, there is a host of books which were required reading in high school that I may well have gotten out of reading because I had read so much other material that the extra credit book reports forgave my lapses re the syllabus. …
Cadigan, Pat Cadigan
Pat Cadigan is a masterful storyteller. One of her strengths is background nuance. You know, filling in the bits and pieces of a world so that it stands up on its own and walks convincingly? Layered on top of that are plots and characters that are among the most idiosyncratic and memorable in science fiction.
Besides which, she can be so damn funny, which science fiction sorely lacks.
Anyway, rather than post another blistering bit about the soon-to-over Bush presidency (and yes, I did watch his farewell speech and all I can say is, “Wasn’t that mercifully short?”) I thought I’d put out this link to an interview with the estimable Ms.…
The End of Hell
Yesterday, our reading group did the last canto of Dante’s Inferno. We reached the center, climbed the hairy haunch of Satan, and emerged to a place where above could be seen stars. I’m told each volume of the Commedia ends with stars.
There is in this final fabrication a very science-fictional scenario which can easily be read as a depiction of a singularity. All motion has ceased except for the flapping of Satan’s wings and the gnawing of his three mouths on the bodies of the ultimate betrayers, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. (As in most other places in the Inferno, Dante mixed post Christian Era figures with Classical forms. …
Roddenberry
…JANUARY 4, 2009Public Memorial Service for the Late “First Lady of Star Trek” Majel Barrett Roddenberry
Cast Members and Fans Come Out to Celebrate and Remember Roddenberry’s Life
WHO:
Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son of Gene & Majel Roddenberry and CEO of Roddenberry Productions, will host cast members, family, friends and fans to celebrate the life of his late mother. Fans are invited to come and pay their respects with the family and share their fondest memories of the late Trek icon.WHAT:
Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry will hold a public memorial service for his late mother. Family, cast members, friends and fans will have an opportunity to remember the legendary “First Lady of Star Trek.”
Daryl Gregory
Hey, it seems that a buddy of mine is going to have an interview in January’s Locus Magazine.
We attended Clarion together, lo some 20 years ago, and Daryl was one of the ones I thought would catapult to the top of the field. He has the gift, the ability to rivet the reader, and get under your skin. I highly recommend his first novel, Pandemonium —first-rate stuff, keeps you thinking. Damned impressive first novel.
Daryl took many years off to raise his kids, but a few years ago I noticed his short stories appearing here and there. Now the novel. …
Procrastination
The end of 2008 approaches. 2009 is going to be…
Not more of the same, I sincerely hope. Mea culpa, I am procrastinating. I watch myself do it. I’m doing it now. I’m writing this instead of hammering out the classic fiction of the future.
I have tio admit, since the beginning of December I have been more and more depressed, which is a horrible, downward spiral, the likes of which I haven’t felt since I broke up with a woman I thought was going to be my wife, a long long time ago. I was a mere 24 then, contemplated ending it all, took a lot of long walks, and came out the other end determined to do better. …