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Columnists

Sources of Inspiration: Food for Imagination

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We’re in the middle of my favorite month, a time of brilliant fall colors and my favorite grapes. It’s also the month of Halloween. If there’s a holiday I love writing fiction about, it’s this one. Vampires, ghosts, and witches are among my favorite subject matter all year around. Halloween celebrates the gothic. It’s a holiday associated with ancient crypts filled with secrets or creatures waiting to be released within banks of mist in which the undead could be waiting. Grinning pumpkin illuminate the darkness, drawing attention to smiles that are a little disturbing. All of this imagery is food … Read more

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

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The science side of humanities was rocked this month by the exposure of three hoaxers. I won’t publish their conclusions or anything, because that’s not really the point of this post, but you can find their nonsense here. The whole impetuous for their shenanigans was bullshit, from start to finish, in my opinion. What basically happened was these three found out about a study they didn’t like. In an effort to undermine the field that study came out of, as well as undermine the humanities in general, these hoaxers put out 20 fake papers to academic journals to see if … Read more

The Picture of Jonathan Collins; a Queer Horror for Halloween – Boogieman In Lavender

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catalog books

By Jeff Baker Some reading for Halloween, now. First I’ll open a can of worms and recommend a queer-themed story by a straight author, something a lot of readers or LGBT fiction won’t touch on principle, but this one’s good; “The Picture of Jonathan Collins,” by Karl Edward Wagner first appeared in the 1995 anthology “Forbidden Acts,” (edited by Collins, Greenberg and Kramer) which is where I first encountered it. Collins is suffering from amnesia of a sort after his house is bombed during the London blitz. Some fifty years earlier, and he hasn’t aged a day since, and can’t … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Ideas

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For me, sources of inspiration are closely linked with ideas. Much of my inspiration comes from one that pops into my head. I mull it over, allowing it to take form. I start writing about it, allowing it grow and spread across the piece of paper or file. Before long, I have a scene, a paragraph, a segment of dialogue. I start thinking about the circumstances which led to that dialogue, writing it down. Before too long, I have a story. Ideas can lead to other creative works as well, like blog posts or interviews. An idea allowed Quartz, not … Read more

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

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Jupiter, space, Jello, discoveries, plot bunnies That title is a little misleading, I know. It’s actually in reference to what my astrophysicist friend told me about the bigger planet in our system. The ridiculously awesome Jupiter. A couple years back, the probe Juno inserted into Jupiter’s orbit with the simple, massive, mission of gathering data. Scientists, and the world, were astounded by the sheer amount of weirdness and awesome we learned. The cyclones at the poles, the wonky electromagnetic field, the sci-fi-esque core. The core and ground are the parts that really stuck with me. Metallic hydrogen. When I first … Read more

Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender:

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Earth - NASA

Arthur C. Clarke’s Tall Tales Or: A Splash of Science With a Shot of Whimsy on the Rocks by Jeff Baker You come upon the “White Hart” quite unexpectedly in one of those anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment. —Arthur C. Clarke “Tales From The White Hart.” It is among my favorite themes in fiction; the tall tale told in a bar, the “Club Story.” Tales told with tongue in cheek and a soupcon of humor. Lord Dunsany wrote several books full of them (told by “Jorkins,”) L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt wrote the … Read more

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

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The Sun lights up the sphere from the outside, and it hangs like a great golden topaz in the Universe, a jewel in the vast blackness. Surrounded by other jewels of sodalite and jasper and pale, pale rubies. The star is visible, a hazy globe of fire, its largest attendant planets vague dots through the translucent wall. That’s the first image which came to mind when I read this newest piece to come out of the science community. New Horizons, the probe we sent out to Pluto back when it was still a planet (Viva la Pluto!), has confirmed there’s … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Ideas Sparked by Interests

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Anne Rice, a writer whose works I’ve adored since I was a teenager, offered up some advice I’ve never forgotten. To go where the pleasure is, as well as the pain. Expressing what’s raw and painful can be cathartic. It’s a powerful source of emotion to draw upon, our own pain. Writing about what’s fun, what fascinates you, well, there’s a good chance you’ll keep writing if you’re interested, isn’t there? How apt that Anne Rice was the one who offered this advice. She’s been the source of many of story I loved. Her concept of vampires utterly hooked me. More … Read more

Toasting Thomas M. Disch – Jeff Baker, Boogieman in Lavender

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Jeff Baker

Lives are short. Literary lives even shorter. When a writer dies, of course, their output stops; there are no new books or stories being produced. Their memory fades from public consciousness. Prolific writers like L. Sprague De Camp, Edward D. Hoch, even Isaac Asimov to a degree are in the process of being forgotten; their novels not reprinted, their stories not anthologized in favor of newer, trendier writers. Such is the case with one of our own, Thomas  M. Disch, writer of science fiction and fantasy; creator of The Brave Little Toaster, and a man who would possibly rather be … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Writing Itself

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Sometimes I’ve found the best source of inspiration is to simply pick up a pencil and start writing. Or to force myself to start typing at a keyboard. There’s something about moving my hands, putting words down on a page (or screen) even if those words are garbage. I may be tired. I may to do something else. I sit down, groaning and grumbling. I stare at what I’ve written or an empty page. I try to think of few sentences, even if they’re jarring or not quite right. I’ve found that stopping at an exciting moment, at the height … Read more