The Opioid Mess
The number of deaths from opioid overdoses and misuse continues to climb. All sorts of legislative and regulatory proposals have been floated, almost entirely, from what I can tell, dealing with...
View ArticleIncompetence
Earlier this week, I flew back from the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, with what I thought would be a comparatively simple itinerary, at least for me, given that getting to and from Cedar...
View ArticleThe Unrecognized Costs of a College Education?
For the past four decades, if not longer, Americans have been told in more ways than one that a college education is the way for a young person to get ahead, in fact, just about the only way. In 2009,...
View ArticleRecluce Tales Named A Best Fiction Book of 2017
Kirkus Reviews just released their listings of the best fiction of 2017, and Recluce Tales was named as one of the best fantasy and science fiction books. This the fourth time my books have received...
View ArticleEducational Excellence…and Measuring It
One of the problems with excellence is something that I’ve seldom seen acknowledged, especially by those charged with determining and “measuring” it. Simply said, excellence is individual, limited, and...
View ArticleRole of University President?
Before I married my wife the opera singer and university professor, my primary interests in the arts were literature, especially F&SF and poetry, and painting. My principal musical interests were...
View ArticleNow is the Time…
…for my occasional rant about when it would be proper to start celebrations and gift buying for Christmas, that is, AFTER Thanksgiving. Yet in most of the United States, by November first, right after...
View ArticleWriting What You Know?
Writing what you know is a well-intended piece of advice for aspiring writers that is too often misconstrued or misapplied. First, what we know is the result of our experiences, both good and bad, and...
View ArticleThe Betrayal of Trust?
As I’ve pointed out before, both in this blog and in various novels, public trust is vital for a working civilization on all levels. We trust that there will be water and power. Despite a handful of...
View Article“Connected” or “Disconnected” ?
One of the seemingly unfathomable and comparatively new outlooks my wife the professor has noted among students entering college in the last two to three years is a comparatively much lower level of...
View ArticleAnother Statistic
A few days ago, a friend of mine, who was also the husband of a colleague of my wife the professor, became a statistic. He shot himself fatally yesterday while his wife, also a professor of music, was...
View ArticleLiving in La-La Land
One of the greatest gifts of the species homo sapiens is the ability to dream of what might be. Unfortunately, that ability is also one of our greatest curses, because it allows individuals to dream up...
View ArticleThoughts on Action in Fiction
Action in science fiction and fantasy is often overvalued, whereas, in mainstream fiction, from what I’ve seen, it tends to be undervalued. Part of this difference, I suspect, lies in expectations....
View ArticleNon-Responsibility?
Several weeks ago, my wife ordered a replacement chair. She received an order confirmation, but days went by… without any chair or any more information. She called the company, and was referred to...
View ArticleConsistency?
We finally got the first snow of the year here in Cedar City. Only once since the town was founded more than 160 years ago has the first snowfall been later [January 8, 1977, in case anyone really...
View ArticlePoetry?
According to the doubtless outdated Sixth Edition of A Handbook to Literature, “poetry” is defined as “a term applied to the many forms in which human beings have given rhythmic expression to their...
View ArticleMore Thoughts on Poetry
From both the comments on the blog and essays and comments elsewhere, it strikes me that, first, at least a few well-read individuals share my concerns about “modern” poetry and “second, that a great...
View ArticleThe “New Year”
I have to confess that I’m a bit of a cynic about the “New Year,” as I am when someone hypes something as “the newest and greatest.” Just because the annual calendar starts over doesn’t really change...
View ArticleOutsiders
Possibly because a high percentage of science fiction and fantasy authors don’t always fit comfortably into “conventional” roles in society, an equally high percentage of F&SF is about outsiders or...
View ArticleDogs, Cats, Other Animals, and People
Years ago, an author whose name I can’t recall wrote a story about a man who saw the essence of people as the animals they most resembled, only to discover than his fiancée resembled a very predatory...
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