It all started with a dream. A woman on a train on her way to a place unfamiliar and strange to her with the voiceover narration beginning with the words; “My name is Victoria Winters.” The understated beginning (from a dream by producer/creator Dan Curtis) of the cult T.V. series Dark Shadows which started out as a soap opera with gothic elements and morphed into something different, darker and some people insist, gayer. Remembered today as “the show with the vampire in it,” way before Twilight, Forever Knight or even Lestat and co., Dark Shadows added supernatural elements in a … Read more
Out in a lonely spot, somewhere around the vast Australian desert, there sits a little machine one might mistake for a shiny table. And that machine did something our most powerful telescopes couldn’t do. It found the first stars. The EDGES is a highly sensitive radio telescope with only one job, to find the faint frequency signal from the one-hit wonders at the beginning of stellar formation. The blue ones which burned hot and died young in glorious nova, and seeded the Universe with heavier atoms. The deaths of those first cosmic pioneers gave rise to what we needed for … Read more
Sometimes, in the course of innocuous browsing for a topic, one comes across a cool bit of science and an unexpected tidbit pops up that really gets the muse going. This happened to me today. Almost two decades ago, NASA launched a little satellite whose mission was to study our magnetosphere. The neat little guy, IMAGE, sent us back a lot of real photographic gems of our little mudball and information that added to our scientific understanding of our world. It showed us the unique qualities of the protective, living shield our core generates, and how it interacts with our … Read more
Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed. Trying to make deadlines. Finishing projects. Trying to market myself. Trying, trying, I’m so very trying. (rueful grin) I think I’ve been trying too hard. I need to find the fun again. After all, if I’m not having fun finishing my projects and marketing myself, how can I expect anyone else to appreciate my efforts? This is one of the reasons Quartz mouths off to on varied social media. We’re attempting to have a little fun while marketing…and venting. :) He expresses a lot of my own doubs and irritations about my journey as a … Read more
Somewhere in my files is the beginning of a bad story called “Summer Job.” It’s wordy and takes an overly long time getting started. It has a small-town Kansas setting, an adolescent protagonist and an element of dark fantasy—all things that appear regularly in stories I’ve written. But I wasn’t trying to be Jeff Baker; I was trying to be Tom Reamy. I first stumbled across Tom Reamy’s short fiction in an anthology of horror stories from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story, “Insects in Amber” grabbed me right off with its setting in an old (and … Read more
The Y chromosome, which about half the planet’s population carries, is an interesting little thing. In humans, and most other species, it’s one of many traits to identify a male. Of course, this is not always the case. A lot of people put stock in that unique little Y. Its presence, and the corresponding genitalia, have dominated history and culture and power for most of humanity’s stint on our little mudball. While it may take another 4 million years, that little chromosome appears to be on the way out. The problem looming for Y is a common trait found in … Read more
Talking about what inspires me is not a subject that can never be done to death. Not for me. It involves my very creativity, the well spring for which I get all my ideas from. Every story I’ve ever written and will write in the future exists because I got inspired. I don’t use this energy just for stories, although stories are a major part of my life. I often draw direction for what I want to write about and how I live my life from inspiration. For me, it’s the spark of creativity. This spark comes from myself as … Read more
I love historical fiction; however, I’ve encountered the occasional work in which it’s clear the author hasn’t done sufficient research before writing. Anachronisms are the biggest culprit in this regard, so today I thought I’d share four tips on conducting research for your historical novel.
They Also Serve First, a nod to the fine blog “Galactic Journey,” http://galacticjourney.org/ which posts entries on sci-fi and pop culture from 55 years ago, and is where I first heard of the story in the September 1962 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A little bit of our literary history. The September 1962 issue included the story “They Also … Read more
The white blood cell, staunch ally in the fight for our bodies, is well known and revered for its heroic attempts in battle. This minuscule part of our blood is near mythical in its abilities. A few days ago, scientists gave us another piece of their methods in ensuring our well-being. Like spies just waiting for their target to appear, these cells burst into action once a foreign body infiltrates and gives on the ground information as the tides of battle shift in a constant state of chaos. Memory cells work in concert with the average foot soldiers to defend … Read more