Well, I know I laid out so many ambitious plans in my previous post, “Ready to Write Something Different”, but when the time came to actually try out all that stuff it just made me feel sick, overwrought, overworked, and inadequate: it was not enjoyable, … Continue readingReady for Writing Something Not So Different
I don’t belabor the point, but the truth is 20th and 21st century of my alternate-history science-fiction space-opera universe is in large measure a family saga of the Reinhardts, heirs of the inventor of the microchip and his fortune. Recently I’ve been brainstorming a new … Continue readingReady for Rapunzel
Over Easter, the holiday of the world’s renewal, the bright sunny season we’re fast approaching has stimulated me to contemplate what a spacefaring civilization that huddled in very close proximity to the sun (or some other star) might be like. It’s also struck me that … Continue readingVampires of the Oort Cloud?
My new short story, a space-operatic Christmas ghost tale, “Spectres Call For Me”, is now out! Get it as an ebook or as a paperback! What is “Spectres Call For Me”? I’ll let the blurb speak for it: Called by dreams, and warned to avoid … Continue readingSpectres Call For Me: New Sci-Fi Short Story Released
One idea I’ve had for a story I’d write in the future is to make one about the “bloody wars” that were fought over the warp gates about a thousand years into the future before the law of dueling was put in place, a bit … Continue readingSpectres of Space
Having recently been on a “Harry Potter” kick, the eight movies to be precise, I might like to offer some thoughts. It’s a good enough story and all that, and the films are entertaining, even if the only one that made me go “Wow! That … Continue readingSome Thoughts on Harry Potter
Along with artificial wombs and other new and futuristic reproductive technologies, cloning is a staple of science fiction, but for all the fantastical examples, we too often neglect that cloning already exists in nature: it’s called “parthenogenesis”, and it expands the universe of possibilities for … Continue readingWorldbuilding with Parthenogenesis
Now here’s a topic I haven’t covered before: worldbuilding flags. Visually flags, coats of arms, emblems, and symbols are a pretty big deal when creating fictional settings and sometimes in real life as well, so I’ll offer some thoughts to fill that gap in this … Continue readingWorldbuilding Flags: Some Thoughts
I recently have been giving some thought as to what my space opera would look like as a space fantasy, reimagining it, so to speak. “Reimagining your space opera setting into a space fantasy?” you might ask, if you weren’t already lost at “magic” and … Continue readingCosmic Ley Lines: Space Opera to Space Fantasy
The Hunt for Count Gleichen’s Treasure is now up to 13,355 words, the Venus section accounting for most of the additions. But rather than bore you with an incremental update on my novel, I will offer a change of pace by outlining a concept for … Continue readingWorldbuilding the Cool, the Romance, and the Fantasy into my Space Opera Setting