I don’t know exactly what happened. I was sitting down in my home office yesterday, taking a break from the short story I was working on, and I glanced at my bookshelves. I seated fairly close to the S’s and there, on a low shelf, my eyes fell on the tattered paperback copy of Carl…
Yesterday, I received in the mail the February 1943 issue of Astounding. The issue contains part 1 of A. E. van Vogt’s serial “The Weapon Makers.” When I turned to the contents page, I noticed another story in the issue that gathered some fame and popularity in the years since. It was even made into…
Walking to the park yesterday, we saw a chip monk running through the trees. I said to the Little Man, “See that, buddy? That’s a chip monk.” “Chick monk,” he said. “Whas he doo’in?” “He’s out getting dinner for his family,” I said. “Chip monks eat nuts.” “Oh man.” “Do you like nuts?” I asked…
I don’t know about other writers, but I have a story nemesis and it has done a lot of damage to my writing time and confidence this year. A story nemesis is that one story you really want to write, but no matter how hard you try, no matter how many different approaches you take,…
We generally like the neighborhood in which we live. There are great parks and bike paths nearby. There is shopping within walking distance. The Little Man’s school is close by. Indeed, the only problem with our little corner of paradise is the dangerous intersection that lurks just outside our development. There is an access road…
Today I picked up a few more issues of Astounding: April through September 1943, which gives me an unbroken string through the first 50 episodes of my Vacation in the Golden Age and takes the Vacation through the end of September 2012, a year from now. My next gap is October 1943 but I have…
Science fiction Grand Master James Gunn is once again offering his online writing workshop on science fiction. If you have always wanted to write science fiction and considered doing a workshop to improve your skills, you couldn’t pick a better online workshop than this one. I should know, I went through the workshop in the…
I’ve been on a short fiction kick lately and I am loving it1. Perhaps it is because I have spent the last several month immersed in epic fantasy novels. Short science fiction stories make for a rather dramatic change of pace. But I think there are other reasons. Short fiction has always been my first…
Today, I downloaded my first1 real comic book. (I imagine long-time comic book enthusiasts are cringing at the thought of my using the words “download” and “real” together with respect to comic books.) I was never a comic book fan, not as a kid, not as a teenager, not at any point in my life.…
The magazines I obtained last week arrived today. The postman duly delivered them despite the flooding rains we’re having here and I am grateful to him for that. The big issue in the pack is the May 1942 issue of Astounding. This has been by far the most difficult issue for me to get my…
I managed 3,200 words spread over about 5 hours yesterday. That is the kind of progress I’ve been targeting for a while now. I worked it so that I got all of my social networking and other tasks done early in the day, and then spent the late morning and most of the afternoon writing,…