Some thoughts on outlining novels and stories

Last night at the Arlington Writers Group meetup, we had a workshop discuss on outlining novels that proved to be both interesting and helpful. The topic was popular enough that it forced us to move into the school library to accommodate all of the members who wanted to participate in the discussion. And it was [...]

Upgrade to WordPress 3.1 and Feedburner

Last night, I upgraded the site to the production release of WordPress 3.1 and there are some definite visible improvements. One of the most convenient is the improved ability at linking within the site. I haven’t fully investigated all of the other goodies packed into this release, but I must say that since I switched [...]

In Santa Monica next week

Once a year, in my day job, my team gathers in our Santa Monica, CA office for an annual planning retreat. I look forward to it with mixed emotions. One the one hand, I get to see people I don’t normally see (I’m the only one on my team who works in our Arlington, VA [...]

Just received – April/May 1941 Astoundings

I got home from work this evening to find that the April and May 1941 issues of Astounding had arrived in the mail. And they are both in very good condition, as you can see: April 1941 May 1941 Of course, it won’t be until June that I get to these issues, but I like [...]

Upcoming schedule for Vacation in the Golden Age posts

I’ve had a number of questions about when various issues of my Vacation in the Golden Age would be covered. The short answer is that I am doing one issue a week. I started with the July 1939 issue and plan on working through the December 1950 issue. That’s 137 issues, which means 137 weeks. [...]

2010 Nebula Award Nominees

This morning SFWA announced the nominations for the 2010 Nebula Awards. It looks like a very good year and some of the categories will be a tough choice indeed, but that is a good thing. It means there was a lot of really outstanding science fiction and fantasy this year. Congratulations to all of the [...]

A Tuesday morning rant about school closures

After that gorgeous 75-degree weather on Friday, last night we had ice and snow and I woke up this morning to 1/8th of an inch of snow. You read that right. One-eight of an inch of snow. If you’re on the metric system, that’s about 2 or 3 millimeters. We got ready for work and [...]

My new column at SF Signal is live

The inaugural post of my new column, The Wayward Time-Traveler, is live. In this first column, I discuss “Old School Science Fiction Flame Wars“. If you are so inclined, go check it out and join the discussion. And thanks once again to the folks overt at SF Signal who invited me to write a science [...]

Analysis paralysis

One of the great things the Internet provides writers is a ton of writing advice. Many professional writers have blogs or write columns online that talk about the writing process and to someone like me, who is still a pretty new pro, still eager to learn, this advice can be invaluable. That said, I sometimes [...]

Learning to love rejection slips

More than a decade ago, in my day job, I took a series of customer service workshops offered by Ouellette & Associates. These were among the finest workshops I have ever taken, and at the time, the represented the only time I witnessed a true paradigm shift in our organization’s customer service. There were two [...]

Vacation in the Golden Age, Episode 5: November 1939

In many ways, this vacation in the Golden Age is the closest I’m likely to come to time travel. I recall back in my senior year in college at the University of California, Riverside, taking a wonderful class on the history of film with a professor named Carlos Cortes. One of the things that he [...]

The Little Man’s first rock song

I have recently discovered a great way to entertain the little Z-man. In the early evening, when he’s getting ready to start climbing the walls, we go out to the new Kia. I put the Z-man in the drivers seat, I climb into the passenger seat. We put on the radio and we just hang [...]

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  • Vacation in the Golden Age

    Episode 38 August 1942

    Stories by MacDonald, Clement, Rocklynne, Cartmill, Padgett and Knight

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    Episode 39 coming May 28

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    All Clear
    by Connie Willis

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