Writers in today’s new media marketplace are sallying forth and self-publishing a lot of their material. Some are asking what pricing is best and what level of sales is needed in order to make a living at writing. This is an exercise every writer goes through at some… Read full post »

I recently finished watching the whole two-year, 40-episode run of Stargate Universe (SGU), which aired on TV from 2009-2010. I confess I am having a strange relationship with this setting and story arc. It is haunting me. That is the only word for it.

There… Read full post »

I haven’t said much at this blog about my main science fiction WIP¹ Splintegrate (SPL),  mainly because while I’m in the thick of it, I find it difficult to talk about it.

Nevertheless, I hit a particular bright spot today that I wanted to share. I have… Read full post »

This fall ABC is premiering Pan Am, a new show about stewardesses, flight crews, and the jet set in 1962. It’s pretty evident they’re attempting to coat-tail on the ’60s nostalgia sparked by AMC’s hit show Mad Men. And right out of the gate they’re getting it wrong.… Read full post »

My new, FREE fantasy novel Dragonsword is now online! Grab a copy and check it out. If you like it, I hope you’ll be sociable and tell some friends about it too.

The book site will tell you more. For now I must be terse, because I’m at… Read full post »

I recently had a conversation with a role-playing game hobbyist who complained how difficult it was to create a game world that “worked.” She wanted to create an alternate history-type South Africa, one in which Zulu tribes, empowered by steam punk, dictated different outcomes with th… Read full post »

What do ebook sales have to do with my book writing? Quite a lot, actually: in the second half of this year I expect to be releasing no less than three books in ebook format – two for sale, and one for free.

Part of what I’ve… Read full post »

In my earlier post on alternate history, I talked about why I like to read and write it. In this and the next installment of this series, I thought it would be interesting to share a small sample of how I grabbed some pieces of the past and… Read full post »

(I've been absent from this blog for quite a while, as I've been off writing, working on finishing a book and launching some new book projects. But I really like this space, so, without further ado, a-posting I will go. Now to the substance of the matter...)… Read full post »

I hear and read too many debates these days peppered with accusations of socialism, fascism, or other extremism regarding governmental policies. People who have lived in socialist (and fascist) countries (East Germany is a great example) rightfully laugh themselves silly over this ideol… Read full post »

I became aware of an interesting news site lately called Newsy.com. This is the first site to present single-story coverage of a given event with that story compiled from multiple news sources. For instance, regarding the D.C. Sniper and Major Nidal Hasan, both of whom I've posted about rece/… Read full post »

Frank Luntz is the master message-smith whose advice to Republicans has largely shaped their anti-health care reform messaging. I'm working on a post about him right now, another installment in my series on propaganda and how Republicans have been using it effectively to kneecap healthcare re… Read full post »

NY bomb plot suspect Najibullah Zazi

Since World War II we have routinely shared intelligence with the British, even co-locating our efforts in some intelligence facilities. U.K. intelligence recently alerted US authorities to a terrorist bomb attack plot, which the Telegraph announced wa… Read full post »

On Friday I wrote a piece about the Ft. Hood shootings. In it I discussed how we have not in fact lost lives to Islamic terrorists since 9/11 (not on American soil, at least), but we have, sadly, lost large numbers of people to mass killings and shootings carried out… Read full post »

HIV virions budding from a cultured lymphocyte

What is an HIV virus that doesn't cause HIV?

It might be the key to medical cures based on genetics.

Since we've decoded the human genome, a tantalizing prospect has loomed before researchers and the medical… Read full post »

It is still too early to know many firm details about Army Major Nidal Hasan's attack on fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood yesterday. It is not too early, though, for anti-Muslim sentiments to be stirred up.

This singular attack has become a Rorschach test of projected motives… Read full post »

There's something I want to delve into over a series of posts, and I thought I'd touch on the tip of that iceberg tonight. Namely: authoritarians, and the toxic impact they are having on democratic values and politics in America.

This is a subject area that… Read full post »

 At the end of September 2009, renowned climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf spoke to an international climate change conference in Oxford, England. Rahmstorf is a respected authority specializing in analysis of ice melt and sea level changes. He and other climate scientists made this startling anno… Read full post »

Well, that didn't take long at all.

Alberto Gonzales gave another interview to the Washington Times September 3, in which he rushed to backtrack on his support for Holder's investigation expressed September 1.

To be fair, he did draw a very (very) fine distinction… Read full post »

Recent comments made by Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales reveal an interesting glimpse into the mindset of an administration that ran roughshod over the Constitution for eight years.

In his repudiation of the government's investigation into CIA interrogation abuses, Cheney expressed incredulity tha… Read full post »

While we are thinking our present economic travails, and how we got there, mark a low point even for us, I came across this relevant quote in the preface of an obscure work at Google Books:

“Not many years ago such an event as the legislative theft of a great franchise… Read full post »

• IBM Social Computing Guidelines

How Technology Transformed Our Enemy into an Underdog We Support

Women at Haft-e Tir Square, Tehran, June 17, 2009. Credit: Hamed Saber

Riveting as the events in Iran have been, there is another story unfolding around it, virtually unnoticed and unremarked upon. It, too, is enabled by… Read full post »

Brooke Greenberg weighs 15 pounds and is 30 inches long.  To look at her, you see a near-toddler who is maybe a year old.  In fact, she is 16 years old.  Brooke is a child who does not age.

This remarkable girl is documented in this ABC news story and video. The reporter/… Read full post »