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Columnists

U=(N/T)M*G: Beast

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I think my favorite part of science is finding something expected that isn’t quite what we expected. This particular discovery is no different and I’m giggling over it. Astronomers have found galaxies 11 billion light years from Earth. We knew they were there, we’ve seen a sizable number but were always looking for more. Higher numbers mean more we can pull data from. No surprises. Everything’s normal. We keep looking. A cluster of 39 galaxies come to astronomers’ attention. These old behemoths are tightly pack and massive on a scale unknown for the early Universe until now. It’s hard to … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Blogs

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crystal - KS trenten - sources of inspiration

At times I worry that I’m spending too much time on my blogs, time that takes me away from my many works in progress. The Cauldrons, however, have been a vital source of inspiration, creativity, and energy since becoming a professional writer. They give me an idea of what direction I want to take my stories in. They’ve given my characters a spot to express themselves, bringing to my attention matters I need to focus on. Quartz has taken on a life of his own in Secondary Characters Speak Out, refusing to let himself fade away, even when I’m concentrating … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Space and Company

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot during Camp NaNoWriMo. To write, I find I require space and company at different times. I need a place where I can write, be alone with my thoughts, or at least be allowed to work. It would be nice for that location to be quiet, but that’s not always possible. I’m getting better at blocking out distractions, like background noise (even though it still irritates me), but sometimes a family member wants something or needs attention. They’re determined to be heard, so I must be equally determined to sneak away. To go to … Read more

A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Urine and Thou – Jeff Baker

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Writers have day jobs. It’s a plain fact of economics, writing doesn’t pay that much unless the writer is very lucky. We supplant our creative careers with a nine-to-five (or six to three, or some such.) A lot of writers have been teachers. Stephen King taught high school English. Jeffrey Marks juggles teaching and editing, the British ghost story writer M. R. James was a Provost of King’s College, Cambridge and Eaton. Some writers, like Steve Berman, have worked in publishing. And others, like me, have jobs that have nothing to do with writing at all. For the last 25 … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Ferocity

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Ferocity

There’s some weird opinions floating around the science intelligentsia all the time. It’s common knowledge and it usually comes down to ideas about how the universe works, until that idea is put to rigorous tests. That’s just the proper way to science. Sometimes though, someone gets a really weird opinion on a topic and this particular one honestly made me scratch my head. One geneticist says we should stop human evolution. This scientist states that evolution is a scourge on our species and we have to stop feeding our children to this evil monster of natural force. They go on … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Imminent

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As I read this article, I didn’t realize all the pieces had started coming together. That humanity was really on the brink of finding life outside of our little half-evolved mudball. A dream so many have and labored toward about to come to fruition. The real interesting information, the bit that sucked me down the biological rabbit hole, was the many many ways life might manifest. Yes, science fiction has explored a wide variety of alien lifeforms, but I think, when it’s all said and done, the life we do find won’t be anything like we imagined. As a science … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Zombie

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Know that strange tingle one gets when something bad is about to happen? Well, that happened to me when I was hunting down a nifty bit of science to feed my fellow authors’ Muses. A group of neuroscientists when and revived 32 pig brains 4 hours after death. These brains were harvested from a slaughterhouse, so no pigs were killed for this experiment, and the scientists had termination protocols ready, just in case there was any indication these brains showed awareness. Ethics for the win. But the scrupulous practices of the researchers in this experiment notwithstanding, there is something deeply … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Hexagon

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Floating cities. When I first saw the phrase, I was thinking something more space-like. Great, domed orbital platforms nestled in the yellowish hue of Venus’ atmosphere. Maybe serenely sitting above the great storms of Jupiter or Saturn. A way of living off in the middle distance of the future. These cities are reality on the cusp of fruition, but not in the clouds of our gas giants or even in orbit around our own planet. Think a little closer to the ground. Or water, as it were. A group of innovators have presented the U.N. Habitat Council with a plausible, … Read more

Following Oscar Wilde – Boogieman In Lavender

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Oscar Wilde

       Following Oscar                                                 By Jeff Baker “In the old days, men had the rack. Now they have the Press.” —Oscar Wilde. It is possible, in the United States, to have crossed paths with the legendary Oscar Wilde without knowing it. Wilde did a lecture tour of the U.S. in 1882 that was supposed to last a few months. He wound up staying about a year, and crossed the States, touring the East and West coasts, traveling through the South and even visiting Canada. For years, however, the specifics of Wilde’s itinerary were a matter of debate, but now a … Read more

Ray Bradbury Revisited: jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

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Pumpkin - Jeff Baker

            I haven’t read every story by Ray Bradbury, but Graham George Barber may have. Barber contacted me to point out that Ray Bradbury did write at least two more stories with Queer characters, after my writing about Bradbury’s story “The Better Part of Wisdom “ (Boogieman In Lavender, July 11, 2016.) None of the stories are science fiction or fantasy, and they all speak of attitudes toward the LGBT community that a straight writer would have had back in the 1950s, but they are Bradbury. By the very nature of this exposition, this review will contain spoilers. In “Long … Read more