A speculative mind

I just finished reading Deepsix by Jack McDevitt. It is the second book in his Academy series, and no, you don’t have to have read the first one to enjoy this one. In this novel the scientific community has gathered to watch a planetary collision. A gas giant cast out of its own system is about to smash into the terrestrial planet Malevia 3 (now nicknamed “Deepsix” as its future is doomed). Everything is going to plan, as scientist and tourists have gathered to watch the event until one of the scientists observing the world through powerful imagery, notices signs of civilization on the surface. Now a team will have to investigate, and it will only have days to do so before the world is to come to an end. Deepsix a real potboiler of a novel. Plenty of action, plenty of risk. Strong characters that we care about, and others that we dislike. It struck me that this would make a wonderful movie or a limited series. But then, how many times have you heard that before. “This wo...

I recently went on a journey through the Cascade mountains. It was a snowy trip. The snow in the mountains was fresh. There is something about fresh snow that looks different from old snow or late season snow. Why does fresh snow look so magical? Is it because we are not used to seeing it? I suppose that could be, if it is the first snow of the season, and you haven’t seen any for almost a year. Or if like me, you live in an area that rarely gets snow, it will always be novel and magical. Of course, snow can also bring inconvenience and travel headaches (we made it through the mountains okay . . . slowly) but I will save that discussion for another day. However, fresh snow has something else going for it. It has a chance to gradually accumulate on the branches of trees or bushes. Even bare branches can develop a seemingly impossible stack of snow that balances on the slenderest of shafts. Older snow after it has been around a while, begins to clump up and fall off making fo...

I have been writing off and on for nearly forty years. Wow. When I say it like that, I feel old. When I say ‘writing’, I mean writing for my own pleasure. I am not counting required writing in school; everyone has to do that. One of the first things I ever wrote was a play called “Revenge of the Ant men.” A friend of mine and I co-wrote this masterpiece in Walker Junior High School when we were probably supposed to be doing something else. As you can tell from the title, it was pretty high-brow stuff. To this day, I can still remember one of the lines the monster said: “ooooooooffff!” I can’t imagine why it was never performed. But I started really getting serious about my writing in college. One tends to write in the genre that one reads. I was into science fiction, so that is mostly what I wrote. By the time I got to college I actually had aspirations to do something with my writing, so I tried to get my short stories published. There were only a few places you could get a ...

Global warming is just a new fad to take your cars away right? Wrong. There is nothing new about it. As early as the 1890’s scientists were speculating about the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on the temperature of the Earth. In 1938 G.S. Callendar first proposed that the Earth was already warming due to carbon dioxide emissions and produced evidence to demonstrate it. But not many people paid any attention. The advent of digital computers in the 1950’s meant that more thorough modeling of the atmosphere could be done. Some of the mechanisms that were thought to offset the carbon effect, were shown to not be valid. New alarms began to be raised. In the late 50’s and early 60’s scientists started explaining this problem to the general public. But the idea was slow to catch on. Those who got concerned about such things, tended to be more concerned with the effects of pollution which could cause things like lung disease, cancer, and acid rain. These were things the general ...

This is going to be another excerpt from Star liner . By popular demand (well, a couple of people requested it) this one will be about Tanya’s dance, as our main character Jan and the other three from the entertainment crew get to see Tanya's performance for the first time: Having adjourned from lunch, we all went up to theater space 2 on Deck B. It was a small auditorium with raked seating, so everyone had a good view of the stage. It only held a maximum of about seventy people, but by the time Tanya’s show was to start it was more than half full and was about equal parts men and women. “Just goes to show you what is popular,” Simon said. “It’s hard for magicians and singers to compete with scantily clad women floating around in null gee.” Half the stage was taken up by a container that nullified the gravity. The lights got very low. Soft ambient music filled the space. A very faint glow came from the container. Tanya slowly drifted into view. No. She was not nak...

Many works of fantasy and science fiction have used actual historical events as their framework. J.R.R. Tolkien was writing the Lord of the Rings during the Second World War and it is easy to feel the emotional wracking of a world at war in the work. George R.R. Martin has made no secrete of the fact that he used European history (particularly the War of the Roses) as a model for The Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) .   Star Trek’s “Romulan Empire” is about as thin a disguise for the Roman Empire as you can get. This is but one reason for my own interest in history. There are always fascinating quirks to be found. For example, here are the facts surrounding the deaths of four Roman Emperors (these are not in chronological order).  Nero’s reign was collapsing around him as influential people became more and more fed up with his corruption and tyranny. The generals Galba and Vindex declared against him, and the Senate proclaimed Galba as emperor. Nero planned to...

(I thought I would offer up  a brief passage from Star Liner, where Jan gets introduced to his fellow entertainers): Sara Bank wore a beige tunic and slacks and comfortable space shoes which I had noticed a lot of people wearing. When our group was fully assembled she said, “Hi, I am Sara, the leader of this little group. The first thing we should do is have introductions and say what your specialties are.   As I said I am Sara and I am a singer.” The woman next to her had blue eyes and blonde hair and a wry smile. She wore a colorful sari that flowed about her as if it were made of water.   “I am Tanya. I am a dancer and a zero gee dancer, and a singer.” “Ooh, that she is,” the man next to me said. He was tall with long brown hair that ran down his back. “I am Simon Jones. Magician and comedian.” “Jan Stot,” I said. “I am a singer and I do theater.”  The man on the other side of me was in his early 20’s with a roundish face ...