June is Great Outdoors Month in the USA, which is a great idea. Everyone tends to head out in June, as soon as the warmer weather kicks in. Even mole-like people like me appreciate being able to open windows, breathe fresh air and still be warm. I’ve written many stories that were set mostly out […]
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Today is Armed Forces Day. Canada’s Armed Forces Day isn’t a public holiday, although there are parades and fly-bys where there are military bases. There is not a lot of commonly-known history about the Canadian military, and as a new Canadian, I’m still catching up on it. There is waaay more movies and TV series
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Many readers like reading science fiction because of the mind-warping sense of scale that future-set stories can create. You can put a SF book down and feel very humble about the world, and also quite hopeful for the future. But here’s a real life, contemporary times scale-warping experience: Consider the original apple tree that Newton
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I don’t listen to podcasts very often, primarily because I’m so busy concentrating on (usually) writing and producing books, that I just can’t spare the time to sit and do nothing with my hands while listening to people talk. If I was doing a lot of repetitive activities that didn’t require much mental capacity (driving,
Every year I write about May the Fourth, and every year, it seems, I explain why I cannot ignore the day. So this year, I won’t. 🙂 Instead, I’m bringing forward the most interesting post from previous years. You can also find other May the Fourth posts here and here. Have an interstellar day! t.
May the Fourth Be With You… Read More »
No, I’m not referring to bedroom games. Really! In the continuing series on things we don’t have to do anymore, providing medical care for our families is on that list. I remember reading Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott when I was very young. I was too young to appreciate the setting and time period, so
I’ve been doing some mind-blowing research on sailing ships lately (that I might put together in another post someday). We usually consider steel-hulled steam or diesel turbine ships to be better and faster than the sailing ships of old. However, the only way that the world could have been discovered, mapped and settled was with sailing
A Cup of Tea…Anything but Simple. Read More »
This post ran seven years ago, so it has drifted deep into the archives. I thought I’d refresh it and bring it forward. –t. I’m almost afraid to mention Shakespeare. There is a whole generation of readers out there, including my kids, who had Shakespeare in Love shoved down their throats in English class at
Shakespearean Sonnets Revisited. Read More »
I’ve seen many pictures of women in third world countries carrying water. Buckets and jugs on their heads, or jerry cans in both hands, sometimes with babies strapped to their backs. I’m sure you’ve seen them, too. Thing is, not so long ago, everyone had to carry water from the nearest source, back to their
Authors can go to extraordinary lengths to build their fictional worlds. They have travelled the world, and spent decades in research. James Cameron has gone where few men have gone before–in ocean depths that few have ever seen. Based on his research he wrote The Abyss (one of my favourite movies ever) and Titanic. J.R.R. Tolkien invented
The Lengths Authors Will Go To Read More »