Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Winter Blahs… And Frozen Pipes!

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Ordinarily, I do a con summary the weekend following a convention, but I’m not up to it tonight. Farpoint was a great success, a very well-run con this year. Our show, “The Maltese Vulcan” went off without a hitch on Friday night, and Tim Russ was, of course, brilliant in the lead role. But things happened that have left me very drained, and not just the hard work of running a con. I may (or may not) talk about those things in this space down the road.

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My Farpoint Schedule

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Farpoint 2015 is this weekend! Guests include Colin Ferguson, Tim Russ, Timothy Zahn, and, of course, me.

I know I said I’d retired from Farpoint and all, but Renee and I stepped up this year to run the Art Show, so that our friends Cindy Woods and Heather Mikkelsen could take over Programming, where they’ve done a stellar job. So I’ll be in the Art Show room a lot this weekend.

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2014 – My Literary Year in Review

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I wrote not one but two essays for the blog this week. Didn’t like either of them when they were done. That’s the kind of mood I’m in. Perhaps I’ll rework them and share them later. Perhaps I’ll file them away as pieces of journal therapy. At any rate, lacking substantive content, I thought it might be useful to review what I produced, and what I took in, literature wise, during this past year.

In addition to 59 blog posts, I shared the short stories “Call Me Sam” on Phil Giunta’s blog, and “Don’t Go in the Barn, Johnny” in the Firebringer anthology Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity. I did also write one radio play (first draft only), five short stories (one sold, yet to be published, two rejected, one pending, one slated for my podcast), a novella (thrice-rejected), a premise for a (non-SF) novel, a premise for a comic series, and a good deal of copy for work-related websites. Kind of a disappointing showing, all things considered. Let’s hope 2015 is better. I’ve already sold two essays sight-unseen to two books from a pretty prestigious publisher, so that’s good.

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Email is the Root of All Evil

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Well, not really. I mean, I don’t believe that. But I hear it all the time:

“Email is the root of all evil.”

“Email is an inefficient method of communication.”

“I hate email! Just call me! Just come see me! It’s easier.”

Email has garnered a great deal of resentment in the workplace these last couple of decades. Someone said to me recently, “Well, when email started, we all thought it was just going to be a way to exchange quick messages. We didn’t expect it to become our principal means of communication.”

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Take. Eat… Wait, WHAT?

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So last week I gave a rundown of how four different SF stories used cannibalism in their plots. Most prominent were the first few episodes of this season of The Walking Dead, less obvious was an episode of the almost-forty-year old Space:1999 series called “Mission of the Darians.” Less well-known to those who think science fiction was invented in 1966 by Gene Roddenberry are two of Robert Heinlein’s works, Stranger in a Strange Land and Farnham’s Freehold.

All use cannibalism as a metaphor. In the two TV storylines, it’s a metaphor for denial of the importance of the individual. In Freehold, it’s a metaphor for oppression of one group by another. In Stranger, it’s a metaphor for strangeness, alien-ness, and acceptance of the universe. It’s also used as a gentle poke at Western Christians who consider themselves more civilized than the heathens who go around rubbing blue mud in their bellies.

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Let it Go (Before it Kills Someone)

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Okay, I had the blog pretty well ready to go this week. It was all about cannibalism in science fiction. Lovely topic, right? Macabre and fantastic. Beyond the boundaries of most of our personal realities. (I’d like to say all of our personal realities, but, well, y’know…)

But before I talk about the macabre and fantastic, life this past week has been a bit… ugly here in the United States, and even here in my own little corner of the world. And a lot of the ugliness stems from anger.

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Catch up with me at Philcon!

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philcon2014_logoSo this will be my first time at America’s oldest SF convention, Philcon. I’m excited to be a part of it. Here’s my schedule, so, if you’re attending, please come say hi, and maybe pick up a copy of Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity, or check out the wonderful new Bob Keck cover for Peace Lord of the Red Planet.
Sat 3:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
NEW LIFE AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS: EXPLORING STAR TREK COMICS [Panelists: Jim Beard (mod), Joseph Berenato, Rich Handley, Steve
Wilson]

Star Trek comics have spanned almost the entire length of the
franchise. Panelists, including the contributors of the latest
comic, will look at the rich history of Star Trek in the four-color
world

Sat 5:00 PM in Plaza IV (Four) (1 hour)
THE HEINLEIN BIOGRAPHY — OR IS IT HAGIOGRAPHY?

[Panelists: Michael Swanwick (mod), Jack Hillman, Tom Purdom, Steve
Wilson]

William Patterson’s two-volume authorized bio of Robert A. Heinlein
is surely one of the most important works of SF scholarship in
recent years. Our panelists will discuss its strengths and
limitations and what it tells us about one of the 20th century’s
great figures

Sat 6:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
IS FANDOM STILL PRODUCING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WRITERS?

[Panelists: Elektra Hammond (mod), Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Victoria
Janssen, Steve Wilson]

There was a time when virtually all of the hot new writers (like
Asimov, Bradbury, Pohl and Kornbluth) came up through the ranks of
organized fandom.  This seems to be less true today. Is that the
case?  Would it be a bad thing or just a sign of the field
broadening its appeal

Sun 1:00 PM in Autograph Table (1 hour)
AUTOGRAPHS – KT PINTO, STEVE WILSON

Keep the Change – Adaptability is your primary workplace survival skill

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I’ve been working full-time since July, 1987. I think it was July. That was the Summer I graduated from college. I’ve had no gaps in employment for the past 27 years.

I started out in the working world with a Journalism degree, an attitude, and one piece of good advice. My High School Art Teacher told me, “When you start working, always make friends with the secretary. First thing. They run the place, and you want them on your side.” Over the years, other wise elders added to the list of those to befriend: the custodian, the security guard and the guy who fixes the phones. Continue reading →

(Blog) Hopping Down the Author Trail

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This week’s entry is Phil Giunta’s idea. Phil asked me to join in this Blog Hop, where I answer four questions and then nominate three other writers to do the same, and they’ll nominate three other writers, and so on, and so on…

I don’t normally do these “pyramid scheme” types of posts, as my friend Nobilis Reed calls them. But this is an opportunity to talk about my writing and to give some other authors some exposure. These are a few of my favorite things, so I’m in.

1. What am I working on?

Lots of things, always. I’m outlining a sixty-minute radio play for performance at Farpoint 2015. I’m kicking around ideas for a flash fiction piece (I don’t think I’ve ever written one, unless you count this. It’s 1470 words, so it’s probably too long.) I’m writing a 6,000-word short story, my third in as many months, and I’ve got a novel outline in development. I’ve also got a page of bullet points for potential projects, including some possible Appalachian romantic comedies and ghost stories. Science Fiction is starting to chafe. Continue reading →