Literary Extremism?
As almost anyone who’s read my work must know, I’m less than a fan of extremes of any sort, but there’s a segment of the population, and I suspect there always has been, that wants to take things to...
View ArticleAuthor “Ethnicity” Issues
In effect, at least in some parts of traditional F&SF publishing, there is a degree of skepticism (if not a de facto ban, according to some) on white writers writing works from a minority point of...
View ArticleEducation/Learning?
Now that the end of the current American school year is nearing, at least for those in more traditional schools, colleges, and universities, I got to thinking even more about learning and education. I...
View ArticleLilacs
When we added several rooms and a new garage to one end of the house some six years ago, we had to remove a struggling and bedraggled lilac bush, but we planted five to replace it, hoping to have more...
View ArticleThe Purity Obsession
Life is messy. People are complex, and it’s always been that way. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and was an untiring champion of religious freedom, but he was also a slave...
View Article“Woke” and Context
The “cancel culture” is close to being out of control – or maybe it is already. On the one side, there is an extreme left that sees the current socio-economic structure and culture as fatally flawed...
View Article“Freedom” Talk
I’m so sick and tired of people – especially the extremists – insisting that they deserve the freedom to say whatever they please, regardless of the consequences. And I’m particularly angry at people,...
View ArticleThe Power of Words
There’s been a great deal of talk about words, and their power, and a great deal of disagreement about that power. But while I’ve heard a great deal of rhetoric, from what I’ve seen and heard, far too...
View ArticleThe Forgotten Point
With all the furor about inequality of income, inequality in education, and statistics being tossed out about how poorly minorities do on standardized tests, maybe all the experts and education...
View ArticleMost-Educated?
The other day I ran across a reference that showed the percentage of national wealth in the U.S. held by “generations” when their median age reached 40. When the baby boomers reached forty, they held...
View ArticleLies Versus Selective Truth?
Once upon a time you could at least count on the vast majority of politicians in either party telling the truth some of the time and there being at least a grain or shade of truth in the rest of their...
View ArticleThe “Collapse” of Traditional Publishing?
For the past several years there have been various “furors” in the F&SF writing community about who’s been publishing what, about who’s not publishing what, and about which type of books are...
View ArticleNickeled and Dimed to Death
Last week our son and his wife came to spend a week with us, and a good time was had by all. Said son is the U.S. manager for a small, family-owned, boutique British retail firm, which means he’s...
View ArticleSloppy
The other night we took visiting family to a very nice local Italian restaurant, one that, while not pricing menu items the way they would be on either coast, would not qualify as inexpensive anywhere,...
View ArticleReview Thoughts
Recently, I read a review of a forthcoming S&SF book that began by trashing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby as a story about insufferable and deeply uninteresting spoiled rich...
View ArticleForgotten City
The other day I came across an interesting article in Archaeology dealing with an ancient city I’d never heard of – Ugarit. The city was founded around 2000 B.C. on the coast of what is now northern...
View ArticleThe Ethos Effect Now Available as E-Book
Tantor Media has just released the ebook version of The Ethos Effect. It’s available through Audible or from the Tantor site https://tantor.com/the-ethos-effect-l-e-modesitt-jr.html.
View ArticleWhat Doesn’t Happen
Almost all the time, novels – and their authors – are judged by how they depict what happens in their work, and how the protagonists and possibly the antagonists act, either to further or thwart the...
View ArticleAn Unseen Economic Impact
While public opinion polls currently are less than infallible, at least when they’re attempting to forecast election results, their margin of error is usually within a few percentage points. This means...
View ArticleArticle 1
I’m happy to announce that I’ve just turned in the final version of Contrarian, the third book in “The Grand Illusion,” my newest series. For those who haven’t been following closely, the first book in...
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