I grew up reading Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, probably three of the biggest egos in science fiction. Asimov was probably the most upfront and flamboyant about his ego, and I loved reading about his “charming Asimovian immodesties.” Clarke, of course, was nicknamed “Ego” as a youngster in school. Heinlein was, well,…
The Little Man is communicating more and more every day. Today I noticed he had adjectives. He knows when something is hot, for instance. If he has food that is hot, he’ll say, “Hot!” and he’ll make like he’s blowing on it. He does the same thing if he feels the heat coming in through…
As many of you long-time followers know, each April I take a break from all my other reading and spend the month re-reading Isaac Asimov’s 3 volume autobiography. I typically start with the retrospective, I. Asimov, and then go back and read the two-volume In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt. I’ve done…
I’ve been asked a couple of times recently if any of my stories were freely available online. For a while they weren’t but as of today, my first published story, “When I Kissed the Learned Astronomer” is now freely available here on my website. Several people suggested that I make the story available on the…
I was reminded today by Robert J. Sawyer that the Hugo nominating deadline is only 11 days away. If you are a member of the World Science Fiction convention and have not already done so, don’t forget to get your nominations in before the deadline. I’ve already posted my nominations for the 2010 Hugo Awards,…
It’s been roughly 100 hours since my upper-left wisdom tooth was pulled. Today was the first relatively normal day in terms of eating. I ate my usual fare and there was very little discomfort. Most of the residual pain seems to occur when I open my mouth wide to take a bite of something. I…
I did some fiction writing yesterday, something I’ve been avoiding because I just felt like it hasn’t been going well lately. Early in the day I received a form-letter rejection from a place where I’d previously sold a story. “Ouch!” I thought, and my initial reaction was that the story was so bad that it…
I’ve wanted to write about some of the ads I’ve come across in Astounding during my Vacation in the Golden Age, but I haven’t really had a chance. Each episode typically tops out somewhere north of 3,000 words and I want the focus to be on the content of the issue. So I figured I’d…