A speculative mind

This age of pandemic, quarantine, or whatever you want to call it (I think we are going to have to come up with a name for this period. Any ideas?), seems like a good opportunity to write. You are home. Everything is closed so there are no distractions. Well . . . not so much. My job has not closed. I am not working from home. My worksite and hours are pretty much the same as normal. There are less people in my office, as about half of them can work from home. My job doesn’t really allow me to work from home, at least until our IT department decides to let me take equipment home and have full access to the network (not happening). So, there is no extra time for me. But it is still true that there are fewer distractions. My wife and I can’t go to movies or plays, or out to eat. We can’t just pop in the car on a Saturday and go on a road trip to one of our favorite places. So, in that respect, I am spending more time at home. But it is amazing, the human capacity for finding ...

(Okay, this really isn't about love; I just liked the title.) What are the best ways to keep from going stir crazy in this time of isolation? 1.       Sex: Yes of course, but let’s be honest, even if you are young, sex has its limitations. I mean, you can do it until your parts wear out, but then what? 2.       Reading: Libraries are closed and book stores are closed. So, you are relegated to online shopping (not quite the same as strolling through your local bookstore, but it’ll do for now I guess), and reading the books you already have at your house. This is where I have an advantage. We have enough books in my house to put a sizable dent in a forest. Some are the books my wife has bought and some were bought by me. Some were bought for our son who has now moved away, yet his books (and some other things) are still here, lingering like the scent of burnt rubber at the Indianapolis Speedway, long after the race is over....

Artists are a courageous lot. Some people will poo-poo that statement. After all, they will say, do artists put their lives on the line like soldiers, police officers, firefighters (and now medical workers)? Perhaps not. But there is another kind of courage, a courage to conquer a fear that anyone who has ever gone to school knows all too well. That is the fear of criticism, of rejection, of being looked down upon, of being emotionally abused, of being hated. I am using the word “artists” in the broadest possible form. Artists, in this context includes anyone who produces a creative output. This includes painters, sculptors, composers, writers, chefs, architects, and also performance artists like actors, musicians, and dancers. I am even including people who do not make a living from their art, because they all have to overcome that same fear.   You see, being an artist means you have to be willing to put a piece of yourself out there for the world to see. It could be som...

Where I live there is a section of town called Nye Beach. In the summertime it is a place packed with tourists. Even in the winter it is bustling with activity. The local residents have many reasons to spend time there: restaurants and pubs that cater to a wide variety of palates, the Performing Arts Center, parks and of course, the beach. Yesterday, I took the above photo, and it was a bit sobering. I have been avoiding talking about the pandemic in my blog. I figured, there is enough talk and news about that for anyone. But then I realized that this is a seminal event in our history. The world is now a different place than it was a couple of months ago. I should talk about it as long as I don’t wallow in it.   In fact, I think I missed a bet by not journaling about this from the beginning. It would be interesting to look back on those journal entries at some point in the future and see what I was seeing and feeling. But I didn’t. I am a fan of the University of Oreg...

This is another little excerpt from my sci-fi novel Star Liner. Jan and Sara are doing work they did not sign up for, when they discover Simon is missing. I worked away and we both finished at the same time. Then we went to work in the conference room where we had our meetings. We had finished the forward lounge when it was time for lunch. Sara called Simon to find out how he was doing. There was no answer. She tried again. No answer. “Can you locate his pad?” I asked. Sara did a check. “It is in the cargo hold.” A sudden thought filled me with foreboding. “I wonder how many unprotected vents there are in the cargo hold.” “Let’s not get crazy,” Sara said. "There could be a good reason he is not answering.” I could think of a couple of reasons, but I did not say them out loud. ”Let’s go down and check.” We made our way down to the forward part of Deck A where the cargo hold was. We opened the big door. We stepped in. It was dimly lit. The pallets cas...

I decided to write about Shirley Jackson, not that I have read a ton of her stuff, but that which I have read has had an impact on me. When I say I haven’t read a lot of her stuff, that is partly because she didn’t write a whole lot of stuff. Just 6 novels. Her short stories might be a better representation. She wrote over 200 of them.   Who is Shirley Jackson, some of you are asking? She is an author from the 1950’s and 60’s (she died in 1965). Her influence on such writers as Stephen king is obvious. She did write horror stories, but not exclusively horror stories. Yet many of her stories, even some of her non-horror ones, had a certain creepy feel to them. That did not stop her from being witty and humorous at times.   Her most famous novel was The Haunting of Hill House which has been made into a couple of movies and a television series. It has been called the best ghost story ever written. Another novel, the dark mystery, We Have always Lived in the Castle ,...

Foreshadowing is the act of giving the reader or viewer hints about what is to come. That cat with glowing eyes from Act 1 is probably not one the hero should take home with her. Some foreshadowing tips are equivalent to downright spoilers. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare tells us in the prologue that the young lovers are going to die. He also calls them “Star-crossed” lovers, in other words, ill-fated. So, everybody in the audience knows from the very beginning how it will end. So, logically, why bother to watch the play? Foreshadowing as in Romeo and Juliet adds tension. It makes every moment the lovers spend together more important, more frantic. It heightens the stakes. If it didn’t do these things, how can you explain why the play keeps selling out performances 400 years after it was written.   Stephen King utilizes foreshadowing to great effect. Again, sometimes it almost seems like it is to the point of being a spoiler. In his Dark Tower series, the fourth ...