It’s kinda funny how brainstorming works. One day I’m watching the 2003 film “The Haunted Mansion” — a fun enough romp, with the main highlight being Chancellor Valorum (er, excuse me, Terence Stamp) playing an aged butler with a big secret — and it strikes … Continue readingA Slice of Life at the Dawn of the Space Age?
It must be the fall atmosphere these days compelling me to watch films like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” more often, because I’ve been giving some thought to fodder for an interesting alternate history what-if: the Nazi concept for the “Alpine Redoubt”, or “Alpine … Continue readingAn Alternate History of the Alpine Fortress
The recent death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of her eldest son King Charles III has rekindled some of my interest in a topic I have never covered on this blog: rules of succession, particularly the alternatives to primogeniture that might be of … Continue readingRules of Succession What-Ifs
Sounds weird, I know. Like, catacombs? Music City? But over the course of the thought I’ve been putting into the world of the turn of the 22nd century, which will be featured for the first time in my next book “Heart of Proxima” (I’ve already … Continue readingCatacombs of Music City
I know just my last post was “A Beloved from the Stars”, covering my brainstorming for my next story, which I’ve decided I might title “Heart of Proxima”, but I’ve been doing some more work on it, enough to want to share it with all … Continue readingReturn from Thalassa: More Thoughts
Hmm. It doesn’t seem like so long since I wrote my thoughts on “After Thalassa: Squid Brains of Enceladus”, but it’s been almost four months! In the interim I’ve been focusing on other stories, but recently I’ve seen fit to flesh out the concept into … Continue readingA Beloved from the Stars
We associate roundabouts with the British, but really, when you dive deep into it it’s surprising that Americans didn’t become the roundabout nation. After all, the first traffic circles, such as Columbus Circle (not to mention all manner of rotaries), were first developed and built … Continue readingGoing Round, and Round, and Round…
Yesterday I was rereading my own novella “Wings of Fire” from last June, and it got me wondering more about the backgrounds of the characters, their biographies and futures. In short, I think there are more stories to be told about these people, the intrepid … Continue readingAfter “Wings of Fire”
I’ve already done a short story in the urban fabric of my alternate-historical science-fiction setting, namely in “Last Light”, but that just covered one romantic date in what even in my timeline is a small city: Utqiagvik, Alaska (a.k.a. Barrow). Now I’m brainstorming a story … Continue readingA Music City for my Alternate History
In my post “Building a Better House”, I explored what I believe to be superior forms for housing, specifically the first floor being garage and the second floor being open like a loft apartment but with Japanese-style doors to partition rooms if desired: a maximum … Continue readingKudzu Among the Ruins