Another Reason for Pseudonyms?
The other day, I read a reader review that gave my new book a one star rating, and the reader declared that she was terribly disappointed, that she’s read all of my books, and had loved them all, but...
View ArticleThe Deeper Problem of Fanatics
The terrorist attacks in France illustrate that there exist within the human population people who are not only willing, but apparently eager, to lose their lives for a “cause” so that they can...
View ArticleA Moderate Religion?
One of the problems that tends to get overlooked with belief systems, particularly religious belief systems, is their inherent hypocrisy, which can be illustrated simply by taking given tenets of the...
View ArticleEffective Leadership?
Let’s ask a question. What do Cyrus the Great, Alexander, Ramses II, Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Pol Pot, Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mao Zedong, Vlad the Impaler, George W. Bush, Dick...
View ArticleA Few Defense Costs
Many years ago, I was a Navy helicopter search and rescue pilot, and, consequently, I do tend to follow aircraft developments… and their costs. The first helicopter I flew as a full-fledged Naval...
View ArticleBeyond PC
From what I can determine, PC, or political correctness, has become almost a tired and trite phrase, and I can see why. It really doesn’t fit the politics and cultural conflicts of the present, and the...
View ArticleWords
Human beings are the ultimate tool-using species on this planet, and in this Solar System, it would appear, and yet… all too often our most powerful tool is ignored, minimized, and overlooked. I’m...
View ArticleLimits
I ran across an interesting blog analyzing/critiquing my recently released hard SF novel – Solar Express. The blog used the intriguing construct of a discussion of the book between a futurist, a...
View ArticleToo Much in the Moment
Much has been said about “living in the moment,” and there is in fact some truth to the need to live in the moment, simply because we cannot undo what has happened in the past, nor can we do much about...
View ArticleSuccess
“Would anyone merely consider Einstein a ‘successful scientist’?” I don’t remember who said or wrote words to that effect, but that question has stuck with me for years. And it’s even more relevant...
View ArticleJustice
Martin Shkreli has been arrested. The man who took over a generic drug selling for $13.50 a pill and who then raised the price to $750 a pill has been charged with fraud and other financial crimes,...
View ArticleMore on Statistics
It’s not often that a F&SF writer can use one of his own books to show the shortcomings of statistics. However, as I write this, Solar Express has an “average” rating of three stars [3.2 stars, to...
View ArticleDouble Standard
Over the past year, there have outbursts of sporadic violence as a result of police actions regarded as excessive by American blacks, many of which have indeed proved to have been excessive. These...
View ArticleParachutes and Sir James Dewar
One of the problems with good language and good ideas is that more than one person can come up with a good thought or idea – honestly, without plagiarizing the idea. Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace...
View Article“Political Honesty”
To begin with, the term “political honesty” is an oxymoron, a complete contradiction in terms, and a practical impossibility in governing a nation as diverse as the United States. Yet large numbers of...
View ArticleArticle 0
Over Christmas, I did get in a little bit of fiction reading, most of it in the form of advance reading copies from Tor and another publishers. One was Wolf’s Empire:Gladiator, by Claudia Christian and...
View ArticleThe Decline and Fall of Opera?
When I married an operatic soprano more than two decades ago, I had absolutely no idea how much that would change my life and also affect my writing. One of the earliest directly observable results was...
View ArticleDavid Geddes Hartwell
Earlier this morning, I received word that my friend and long-time editor, David Hartwell, had suffered a massive cerebral bleed and subsequently died. David published my very first SF novel at a time...
View ArticleDavid Hartwell… Legacies
As many of my readers should know, my long-time editor and friend, David Hartwell, died last Wednesday, January 20, 2016. He died from a burst cranial artery either from, during, or incident to a fall...
View ArticleA Perspective on Numbers… and Violence
More than a few commentators and political figures have trotted out words to the effect that we live in the most dangerous time in human history. Yet, for the last several years, and perhaps for as...
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